Thousands of Palestinians fled Gaza City on Monday, where the Israeli army deployed tanks and called for the evacuation of new neighborhoods, while intense fighting rages under bombardment.
Nine months after the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7 by the unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel, new talks for a truce are due to begin this week in Qatar and Egypt, two of the countries mediating with the United States.
In the north of the Palestinian territory, Israeli tanks stormed several neighborhoods of Gaza City on Monday, supported by airstrikes and drones.
On foot or by cart, thousands of residents fled, according to witnesses and the Civil Defense, thrown once again onto dusty roads, under the incessant buzzing of drones.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Displaced people carry their belongings on the back of a tricycle truck as they pass the rubble of destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, July 8, 2024.
“Living in the Ruins”
For the third time since June 27, the army has issued calls for evacuations, which now concern neighborhoods in the city center after that of Shujaiya, in the east, and its surroundings.
The Israeli army announced that it had struck “terrorists” using “the structures of a school in the Nusseirat area” in the centre of the Gaza Strip during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
A medical source at Al-Awda hospital in Nouseirat said that his institution had received several wounded following an attack at the entrance to a school of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the vicinity.
“Based on intelligence, and using precision munitions [l’armée de l’air israélienne] hit several terrorists who were carrying out terrorist activities using the structures of a school in the Nusseirat area as shelter,” the Israeli army wrote in a statement.
Army accuses Hamas and Islamic Jihad of ‘systematically violating international law’ [en] exploiting civilian structures and making use of the inhabitants [de Gaza] as human shields for [lancer] terrorist attacks against the State of Israel.”
“Where are we going?” asked one resident, Abdullah Khammash. “At three in the morning we left, we slept on the street. Now we are going back to living in the ruins,” he said.
According to Hamas’ armed wing, the ongoing fighting is “the most intense in months.”
The Civil Defense said it had received reports of “dozens” of dead and wounded, without being able to reach the targeted neighborhoods due to the intensity of the shooting.
In the south of the territory, where the population has also been called upon in recent days to evacuate large areas, the army said it had “eliminated more than 30 terrorists” in Rafah and struck rocket launching sites in Khan Younis.
PHOTO LEO CORREA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip’s largest city in pursuit of militants who had gathered there, sending thousands of Palestinians fleeing on Monday.
Israeli soldiers launched a ground offensive on May 7 on Rafah, on the Egyptian border, then presented as the last stage of the war against Hamas. But fighting has since resumed in regions that it had claimed to control, particularly in the north.
Some of the displaced civilians are heading towards Deir el-Balah, in the centre of the territory, where the humanitarian situation is worsening, warned Maysa Saleh of the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council on Monday, returning from a mission there.
PHOTO EYAD BABA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
People rush to carry wounded people after an Israeli shelling at al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, July 8, 2024.
“The first question that comes up every morning is the same: ‘What are we going to eat today?’ During my stay in Deir el-Balah, I have not seen anything resembling aid. It is almost non-existent,” said the humanitarian official.
“New obstacles”
After months of fruitless indirect negotiations, a new round of talks for a ceasefire and hostage releases is set to begin “most likely” Wednesday in Doha with the participation of the three mediating countries, a Palestinian source announced on Monday.
The heads of the CIA, William Burns, and of the Israeli intelligence service, David Barnea, are expected in Doha on Wednesday to meet with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, according to a source close to the negotiations.
According to an Egyptian media outlet, Israeli and American delegations are also expected in Cairo.
A senior Hamas official said Sunday that his movement no longer demanded a permanent ceasefire before starting negotiations on the release of hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that “any agreement would allow Israel to fight until all the objectives of the war are achieved,” namely the destruction of Hamas and the release of all hostages.
Hamas on Monday accused Benjamin Netanyahu of obstructing negotiations and “creating new obstacles.”
ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right).
Its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, warned the mediators that “the massacres, the killings, the displacements” committed in Gaza City and the “catastrophic consequences” of the current events could “bring the negotiations back to square one”, according to a statement from the movement.
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza launched an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted, 116 are still being held in Gaza, 42 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli army.
In response, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and considers it a terrorist organisation, as do the United States and the European Union.
The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has so far killed 38,193 people, mostly civilians, including at least 40 in 24 hours, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza government.
The war threatens to spread to Lebanon, after an intensification of shootings on the border between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Iran and allied with Hamas.
On Monday, the army counted 24 shots fired from Lebanon and indicated that they were targeting Hezbollah military installations in southern Lebanon in retaliation.