Dozens of Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip over the weekend as Israeli and Hamas officers continued oblique cease-fire talks by way of mediators in Qatar.
Israel’s navy mentioned on Sunday that it had hit greater than 100 targets throughout the enclave over the weekend, together with websites from which militants had fired at the very least 4 projectiles towards Israeli territory on Friday and Saturday. It mentioned the strikes had killed Hamas militants and that the navy had taken measures to mitigate the chance of harming civilians. The claims couldn’t be independently verified.
The Gaza well being ministry mentioned in a press release on Sunday that 88 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours. The ministry’s figures don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Gaza Civil Protection, an emergency companies company, mentioned that its crews had responded to a number of airstrikes on household properties on Sunday wherein a number of folks have been killed and wounded.
Stress has been mounting on either side to achieve a cease-fire settlement that would come with the discharge of hostages held in Gaza earlier than President-elect Donald J. Trump takes workplace on Jan. 20. Hamas and Israel each mentioned they have been sending delegations to the Qatari capital of Doha in current days to fulfill with mediators.
The Israeli delegation remained in Doha over the weekend, based on an Israeli individual accustomed to the matter, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to publicly talk about the secretive talks. The individual mentioned that the discussions in Doha have been making sluggish progress and have been geared toward reaching a restricted deal that might see a brief halt within the preventing and a few Israeli hostages launched in trade for numerous Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
Reflecting the abiding hole between the edges, at the very least of their public positions, Hamas mentioned in a press release on Friday that the present spherical of talks would concentrate on an settlement main to a whole cease-fire and the main points for a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Israel had not dedicated to ending the warfare, an official who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate delicate diplomacy, mentioned final week.
Roughly 100 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza out of some 250 folks taken captive throughout the Hamas-led assaults in October 2023 that prompted the warfare. No less than a 3rd of them are presumed to be useless.
A weeklong truce in November 2023 allowed for the discharge of 105 hostages, however subsequent efforts to achieve a cease-fire have faltered amid gaps within the two sides’ calls for. Either side blames the opposite for the failure to achieve a deal.
Israeli officers have just lately mentioned that they consider that Hamas is rebuilding its forces in Gaza. And the group seems to be recruiting new fighters quicker than Israel can remove them.
Safety officers reportedly advised an Israeli parliamentary committee final week that Hamas has as much as 19,000 fighters, with about 9,000 of them in organized models. Earlier than the warfare, Israel estimated that Hamas had roughly 25,000 fighters, although Hamas by no means confirmed that determine.
Mr. Netanyahu mentioned in November that Israel’s navy had killed shut to twenty,000 fighters.
In all, greater than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed throughout the warfare, based on the well being ministry in Gaza.
And as hopes for even a restricted cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas rise once more, Palestinians and human rights organizations say the humanitarian scenario in Gaza is getting much more determined.
The Palestinian Pink Crescent Society mentioned on Sunday that in a single day Israeli airstrikes close to Al-Amal Hospital within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis precipitated vital harm to a number of hospital services and killed one individual.
Final week, Israeli forces raided the final remaining main hospital in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan, and compelled its workers and sufferers to evacuate. The Israeli navy mentioned that Kamal Adwan was a stronghold for Hamas and that it was finishing up “focused operations” within the space.
The hospital had been the primary supplier of medical care within the northernmost stretch of Gaza amid a monthslong offensive by Israel’s navy towards what it says is a resurgent Hamas.
The World Well being Group mentioned that the raid on Kamal Adwan “put the final main well being facility in North Gaza out of service” — and that the remaining sufferers, caregivers and well being staff have been transferred to the Indonesian Hospital.
However on Sunday, Gaza’s well being ministry mentioned that the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza was not offering companies to sufferers or the wounded, leaving the northern a part of the enclave with none functioning hospitals amid the close to fixed bombardment.
Aaron Boxerman contributed to this report.