Israel steps up attacks on Gaza amid ceasefire talks
Heavy bombardment of a refugee-filled Gaza town on Thursday razed a major mosque and killed or injured dozens of people, as Israel reiterated its intention to push into the area with ground troops if Hamas does not release the hostages before the beginning of the Islamic holy month. of Ramadan.
Nearly 100 people have been killed in the enclave in the past day as a result of Israeli attacks, Gaza health authorities said Thursday, bringing the total death toll to almost 30,000 after nearly two decades of war.
About half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents are crammed into the southern city of Rafah along the border with Egypt, where Thursday’s attack on the mosque took place. Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported that at least seven Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured in Rafah overnight.
Israel’s preparations for an invasion of that area come as diplomats rushed to prevent it, with Ramadan set to begin around March 10.
President Biden’s Middle East coordinator, Brett McGurk, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “a good couple of hours” on Thursday, focusing on whether negotiators “could reach a hostage deal,” according to a White House spokesman .
Talks in Cairo last week on a hostage deal collapsed when Mr Netanyahu withdrew his negotiators, accusing Hamas of refusing to give in to what he called “ridiculous” demands and vowing to continue Israel’s offensive.
But on Wednesday evening, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said there was momentum for a new draft of a deal that indicated an “opportunity to move forward.” But he also warned that if no deal was reached, the Israeli army would continue fighting during Ramadan.
One person briefed on the talks said there are indications that both Hamas and Israel are willing to negotiate an interim deal that could swap 35 Israeli hostages, who are medically frail or older, for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.
On Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the government “will expand the authority given to our hostage negotiators.”
Israeli officials say about 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, although officials believe at least 30 of them are dead.
Senior Israeli, Qatari, US and Egyptian officials will meet in Paris on Friday to try to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, an Israeli official and a person briefed on Thursday the conversations. Qatar and Egypt act as intermediaries between Israel and Hamas, not negotiating directly.
The Mossad head, David Barnea; the CIA director, William Burns; the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani; and Abbas Kamel, the head of Egypt’s intelligence service, are among the expected participants in the Paris talks, said the Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic developments, as did the person briefed on the talks .
On Thursday, Hamas praised a shooting near a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that killed at least one person, identified by local media as an Israeli man in his 20s, and injured several others Thursday morning. Violence in the West Bank has increased dramatically since the start of the war in Gaza, underscoring the broader challenges to stability and governance in the occupied territories.
In Thursday’s shooting, three Palestinians used automatic weapons to fire from a car at a traffic jam in front of the A Za’im checkpoint leading to Jerusalem, Israeli police said. All three attackers were killed, police spokesman Eli Levy said in a video statement.
The Israeli army said on Thursday that it is fighting Hamas across the entire Gaza Strip. Troops “continued to expand their offensives in northern Gaza,” the army said. At the same time, the Israeli navy targeted ships it said were being used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group. And in the south, Israeli forces attacked and killed 15 fighters in the town of Khan Younis, the army said.
In Rafah, the intense bombardment on Thursday heightened fears among residents, who said it was the heaviest since 10 days ago, when Israeli forces carried out an attack there to free two hostages and launched a wave of attacks that health authorities said killed dozens of Palestinians .
“It was a very hard night,” said Akram al-Satri, who is sheltering in Rafah. “They destroyed the Al-Farouk Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the area,” he added in a voice message on Thursday. A video published by Reuters news agency on Thursday shows a large pile of rubble at the site of the mosque.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attacks on Rafah on Thursday. Mr Netanyahu has described the city as a Hamas stronghold and says the aim of Israel’s campaign is to eliminate the militant group.
Since the attack on Rafah and Netanyahu’s announcement of a planned ground offensive in Rafah, some people there – many of whom had been displaced several times – began packing up and moving north.
On Thursday morning, after a night of fear as drones buzzed and airstrikes boomed, more displaced families from Rafah arrived at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, a city in central Gaza, said Beirut Hana, a lawyer sheltering there. . They set up tents in and around the hospital and on empty plots of land, she said.
“Ever since the Israeli army announced their plans for a ground invasion of Rafah, people got scared and started moving,” Ms. Hana said in a telephone interview. “Since then, large crowds of people have been arriving every day in Deir al Balah and Nuseirat,” another city in central Gaza.
Ms Hana said that while some people were returning to their homes in Deir al Balah, many others who were not from the city were seeking safety. But heavy bombing has also continued in central Gaza, residents said.
“So many people flee Rafah and come here thinking they would be safer, but are killed here,” Ms Hana said, referring to the central strip.
Aaron Bokserman, Adam Sella Approach Ibrahim And Julian E Barnes reporting contributed.