The Israeli army carried out new deadly strikes and clashes with the Palestinian Hamas in the devastated and besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday, as it exchanged cross-border fire with Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
As the war in Gaza enters its 10th day on Sunday,e Diplomatic efforts have been renewed for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza, with Israel announcing that it will send a delegation next week to continue talks with Qatari mediators.
In the past 48 hours, at least 87 people have died in the Gaza Strip, where some 2.4 million people are under siege by Israel in conditions deemed “dire” by the UN. Water and food are in short supply, 80% of the population is displaced and several people, including children, have died of malnutrition, according to the UN.
On Saturday, rescuers reported 10 dead, including three local journalists, in an airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip. A fourth journalist was killed in Gaza City (north), according to the Hamas press office.
“The rubble fell on us”
“We were sleeping when suddenly a strike hit our house. The rubble fell on us,” said Mohammad Abou Marahil, after the attack in Nousseirat where rescuers helped by residents pulled bodies from the rubble.
Fighting also continued in Shujaiya, a district east of Gaza City (north), where soldiers have been conducting a ground operation supported by the air force since June 27.
The army said that “Hamas terrorist members were eliminated during fighting” in Shujaiya and reported “the destruction of weapons and infrastructure” including tunnels, accusing “the enemy of seeking to re-establish a base” in the neighborhood.
The soldiers are also fighting in Rafah (south) where according to the army “terrorist cells have been eliminated” and “several tunnels destroyed and weapons seized” with the help of the air force.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said two of its employees were killed in al-Bureij (central) without giving further details.
After nine months of conflict, the Israeli army had to intervene again in several areas it had said it controlled, including Shujaiya.
The international community says it fears an extension of this war to Lebanon, which borders northern Israel, with each intensification of attacks by the Israeli army and Lebanese Hezbollah.
On October 8, the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, in support of Hamas, opened a front with Israel. Since then, violence has been a daily occurrence.
On Saturday, he announced that he had launched “explosive drones against a military site” in Beit Hillel in northern Israel.
Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel, with the army reporting the “interception of a suspicious air target” and the downing of “hostile aircraft” in Beit Hillel. Its air force bombed “terrorist targets” in southern Lebanon, it said.
Yet another effort for a truce
In this context, which raises fears of a conflagration in the Middle East, new efforts are underway for a ceasefire in Gaza, a few weeks before a visit to the United States by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to address Congress on July 24.
After the Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea ended talks in Qatar on Friday, Mr Netanyahu’s office announced that a team would continue negotiations in Qatar “next week”.
He reported persistent “discrepancies” with Hamas, which for its part announced new “ideas”.
For several months, mediation efforts led by Qatar, the United States and Egypt have been running up against the demands of both sides: Benjamin Netanyahu says he wants to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are released.
Hamas, for its part, is demanding a definitive ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza before an agreement.