Around forty bodies were discovered on Friday in two neighborhoods of Gaza City, targeted by Israeli military operations, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense, after Joe Biden reported “progress” in discussions for a truce.
In the tenth month of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, fighting continues from the north to the south of the Gaza Strip, particularly in the eponymous city.
Hamas media reported “more than 70 airstrikes” in the besieged Palestinian territory, where the Health Ministry said “32 martyrs, the majority of them children and women, were transferred to hospitals” overnight.
“Bodies on the roads”
In the southwest of Gaza City, “around 40 martyrs” were also discovered on Friday in the neighborhoods of Tal al-Hawa and al-Sinaa, according to the Civil Defense, reporting dozens of other bodies “on the roads and in the rubble.”
On Thursday, around sixty bodies had already been discovered under the rubble in Choujaïya, an eastern district, after the end of a vast Israeli operation which devastated the area, according to the same source.
Witnesses and a correspondent saw soldiers withdrawing from some neighborhoods in Gaza City. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment.
In the Al-Rimal neighborhood, the Israeli army left behind “massive destruction and burned buildings,” Tariq Ghanem, a 57-year-old teacher, told AFP on Friday.
The army had called on Wednesday for all residents of Gaza City to evacuate, some 300,000 to 350,000 people, according to the UN.
“I have been displaced four times,” says Umm Ihab Arafat, sitting on a pile of sand surrounded by her children. “I want a complete truce so we can go home,” she adds.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement that it had received “hundreds of calls in recent days from people desperately calling for help” in Gaza.
“Entire families are stranded and desperately seeking safety,” the ICRC said.
In downtown Gaza, an AFP correspondent saw charred buildings, other buildings badly damaged or completely razed, with the incessant drone of Israeli drones in the background.
In the south, the Israeli army said it was continuing its operations in Rafah, where it had “eliminated numerous terrorists in close combat and by air strikes.”
Israeli aircraft targeted missile launch sites in Beit Hanoun after firing into southern Israel, the same source said.
Call for the release of hostages
As the Israeli-Lebanese border is the scene of daily clashes between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, sirens sounded again Friday in northern Israel. A projectile fired from Lebanon fell on an open field in Israel, without causing any injuries, according to the army.
The war broke out on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into 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 army.
“Hamas and other armed groups must immediately and unconditionally release all civilian hostages,” Amnesty International called on Friday. “Hostage-taking is a war crime.”
In response to the October 7 attack, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an offensive that has so far killed 38,345 people, mostly civilians, the health ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government said Thursday.
The situation in the besieged territory is dire: humanitarian aid is waiting on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom checkpoint. The UN and Israel are blaming each other for the blockage of distributions.
On the diplomatic front, efforts led by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been relaunched to move towards a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.
“Complex questions”
“These are difficult, complex issues. There are still gaps to fill. We are making progress. The trend is positive,” said US President Joe Biden on Friday.
Regarding the ongoing indirect negotiations, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said on Friday that his movement had proposed a “non-partisan government with national competence” to rule Gaza and the West Bank after the war.
On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the head of the Israeli delegation returning from Doha, David Barnea, director of the Mossad (foreign intelligence) to take stock of the progress of the talks, according to an official statement.
According to the same source, a delegation led by the head of the Shin Bet (internal security), Ronen Bar, was to go to Cairo on Thursday evening to continue talks.
Hamas announced a concession on Sunday, saying it would agree to negotiate the release of the hostages in the absence of a permanent ceasefire with Israel, something it had always demanded.
Mr Netanyahu has always said he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union, and the release of all the hostages.