(Bureij) Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling targeted the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, where the deadly war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas will enter its ninth month, with mediators stepping up efforts to secure a ceasefire.
Nearly a month after the start of a ground offensive on Rafah (south), presented by Israel as the final stage of its war against Hamas, triggered after an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil, the Fighting has concentrated in recent days in the center of the Gaza Strip.
During the night, eight people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a house in the al-Maghazi refugee camp, hospital sources reported. According to the Civil Defense, three other people lost their lives east of this camp in the same circumstances.
Still in the center, a strike near the entrance to the al-Boureij camp and artillery fire southeast of Deir el-Balah caused several victims, according to witnesses.
The Israeli army confirmed carrying out operations in the al-Boureij and Deir el-Balah areas, claiming in a statement to have “eliminated” several Hamas members. Israeli soldiers also continue their activities in the Rafah area, she added.
After almost eight months of war, Egypt, the United States and Qatar, mediator countries, are continuing their efforts to try to convince the belligerents to conclude a ceasefire, a few days after the announcement by American President Joe Biden of a new proposed agreement proposed according to him by Israel.
This provides for a six-week ceasefire accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza, the release of certain hostages taken during the Hamas attack in the Palestinian territory, in particular women and sick, and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
It aims to establish a “permanent” ceasefire in a later phase, provided that Hamas “respects its commitments,” Mr. Biden said.
CIA boss William Burns is expected in Doha on Wednesday to “continue working with mediators to reach an agreement” on a ceasefire, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
Al-Qahera News, a media outlet close to Egyptian intelligence, reported that an Egyptian delegation would meet its Qatari and American counterparts in Doha on Wednesday, citing a highly placed source.
According to the American site Axios, American President Joe Biden’s special adviser for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, is expected in Cairo on Wednesday.
The war in the Gaza Strip was sparked by an attack on southern Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrating from Palestinian territory on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians killed that day , according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
Some 251 people were taken as hostages in this attack. After a truce in November which notably allowed the release of around a hundred of them, 120 hostages are still being held in Gaza, 41 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli army.
In response to the October 7 attack, the Israeli army launched a deadly offensive in the small coastal territory where Hamas took power in 2007. At least 36,550 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since the start of the war, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
The contradictory demands of the two camps leave little hope of seeing the plan announced by Mr. Biden come to fruition, with Hamas insisting on a “permanent ceasefire”, while Israel insists that it wants to “destroy” the Palestinian movement, considered “terrorist” by Israel, Washington and the European Union.
Qatar said it was waiting for “a clear position” from Israel, which appeared to distance itself from the plan.
On Tuesday night, the Israeli war cabinet decided to ask the United States for guarantees to continue the war if Hamas violated the agreement, according to Israeli public television Kan.
On the humanitarian front, the NGO Oxfam denounced on Tuesday the “terrible” health conditions in the Al-Mawassi area, near Khan Younès, in the south.
While “1.7 million inhabitants are now concentrated in less than a fifth of the Gaza Strip”, which at the start of the war had 2.4 million Palestinians, Israeli bombings and “deliberate” blockades make “virtually impossible” access to “trapped and starving” civilians, Oxfam lamented.
Gaza residents are reduced to “drinking sewage” and eating animal food, denounced the regional head of the World Health Organization, pleading for an immediate increase in humanitarian aid.
This arrives in dribs and drabs in the besieged territory, the offensive on Rafah having led to the closure of the crossing point with Egypt, crucial for the delivery of international aid.
Cogat, an agency of the Israeli Defense Ministry responsible for managing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing, another crossing into the Gaza Strip, was at “full capacity.”
“We’re not even close to where we need to be. We need all entry points to be open. We need safe and unhindered access,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths called on X.