The Israeli army continued its ground offensive in Gaza City on Tuesday, which has prompted tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee, according to the UN, in search of shelter across the besieged Palestinian territory.
Ground troops, supported by tanks and aerial bombardments, are engaged in intense fighting against Hamas and its allies in this city in the north of the Gaza Strip, on the eve of new negotiations in Qatar to try to move towards a ceasefire associated with the release of hostages.
According to a source close to the negotiations, the heads of the CIA, William Burns, and of the Israeli intelligence services, David Barnea, are expected in Doha on Wednesday to meet the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani.
On Tuesday, the US intelligence chief stopped in Cairo to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The Islamist movement Hamas, which launched the October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war, accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday of obstructing indirect negotiations led by Qatar, the United States and Egypt.
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 Hamas’ armed wing, the fighting in Gaza City is “the most intense in months.”
The army launched a ground operation on June 27 in the Choujaïya sector, in the east of the city, before extending it on Monday to the central districts, where “tens of thousands of people”, according to the UN, were called to evacuate.
“What are we going to eat?”
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday it was “appalled” by these evacuation orders, which are forcing displaced people to join areas in the west and south of the city that have also been targeted, “where civilians are being killed”.
The army announced on Tuesday that it was “continuing its anti-terrorist operation in Gaza City”, where residents reported helicopter fire, “explosions and numerous shootings” in the southwestern districts.
The UN human rights office stressed that Deir el-Balah, a town further south where the displaced are specifically being urged to move, was “already heavily overcrowded with displaced Palestinians” and that there was “little infrastructure and access to humanitarian aid”.
Deir el-Balah is also hosting civilians who fled the southern Gaza Strip, where the army recently called for the evacuation of large areas of eastern Rafah and Khan Younis.
“The first question every morning is the same: ‘What are we going to eat today?'” Maysa Saleh, an official with the Norwegian Refugee Council, who returned from Deir el-Balah, said on Monday.
UN experts on Tuesday accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign” that has led to the deaths of children in the territory.
During the night, the army also announced that it had struck “terrorists” using “the structures of a school in the Nousseirat area”, also in the centre.
In the morning, children and rescuers were searching through the rubble of the school run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, according to AFP images.
“Points of divergence”
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 38,243 people, mostly civilians, including at least 50 in 24 hours, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza government.
After months of fruitless negotiations, a Hamas official said Sunday that his movement was no longer demanding a permanent ceasefire before any negotiations on the release of hostages, a demand that Israel has consistently rejected.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that “any agreement would allow Israel to fight until all the objectives of the war are achieved,” including the destruction of Hamas.
According to a Palestinian official, Hamas must participate in the upcoming negotiations, despite several “points of divergence.”
These include Israel’s refusal to release around a hundred Palestinian prisoners sentenced to heavy sentences and the Israeli withdrawal, demanded by Hamas, from areas of Rafah bordering Egypt.