Israel carried out strikes on Tuesday in the southern Gaza Strip, where thousands of people fled in panic, as Hamas reached a post-war deal with other Palestinian groups in Beijing.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz lambasted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party for signing the deal, and said Hamas “would be crushed.” “Instead of rejecting terrorism, Mahmoud Abbas embraces the murderers and rapists of Hamas, revealing his true colors,” he said.
The Palestinian Islamist movement, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip, announced that it had signed a “national unity” agreement with other Palestinian organizations which, according to China, provides for joint governance after the war in Gaza.
A total of 14 factions including Fatah, which partially governs the occupied West Bank, met in Beijing in a new attempt, sponsored by China, to find compromises between the different components of the Palestinian political scene.
According to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the agreement provides for the creation of an “interim government of national reconciliation.”
Israel has consistently refused to allow Hamas to play a role in Gaza and has vowed to destroy the Islamist movement, which carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7 that triggered the war.
“Gaza is dead”
Pressed in his country to reach a ceasefire agreement allowing the release of the hostages held in Gaza, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is visiting Washington where he is to give a speech to Congress on Wednesday, then meet with American President Joe Biden on Thursday.
Israel’s main ally, Washington had been irritated in recent months by the consequences of the Israeli response to the Hamas attack, insisting on the protection of civilians and the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Joe Biden pledged Monday to “keep working to end the war” after his decision not to run for president in November. His vice president Kamala Harris, who is expected to win the Democratic nomination, is also due to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu.
With Qatar and Egypt, Washington is trying to restart negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza. An Israeli delegation is expected in Doha on Thursday, according to a source close to the talks.
The army is meanwhile continuing its offensive against Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, the European Union and Israel, and other Palestinian groups, particularly in regions which it had announced it had regained control of.
Bombings again targeted Khan Younis, the largest city in the south of the territory, as well as Gaza City and Jabalia in the north on Tuesday, according to an AFP correspondent.
The Civil Defense, an organization that reports to Hamas, announced the deaths of eight people, including three children, in Gaza City.
On Monday, the army ordered people to leave the east of Khan Younis again, a ruined city from which it had withdrawn in early April, saying it was preparing an “operation against terrorist organizations” after rocket fire towards Israel.
Israeli aircraft struck “more than 50 terrorist infrastructures,” the army announced on Tuesday.
In the nearby town of Rafah, the army said it had “eliminated dozens of terrorists in targeted airstrikes and close-quarters combat.”
“We were happy to prepare breakfast,” and suddenly “the shells fall, then the warning leaflets,” said Hassan Qoudayh, who fled with his family, like thousands of other Palestinians. “Gaza is finished, Gaza is dead. There is nothing left,” he said.
Risk of epidemics
The war has forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people to move, many multiple times, across the territory under siege by Israel.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said it was “very concerned” about possible outbreaks, particularly after it isolated the polio virus in sewage samples, adding that 14,000 people may need medical evacuation out of Gaza.
The war began on October 7 when Hamas commandos infiltrated southern Israel and carried out an attack that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped at the time, 116 are still being held in Gaza, including 44 who died, according to the army.
In response, Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip, which left 39,090 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza government.
The war has caused a surge in tensions in the region, particularly in the occupied West Bank, where, according to several Palestinian officials, five Palestinians were killed on Tuesday during an Israeli army raid on a refugee camp in Tulkarem.