Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli forces bombed houses during overnight attacks in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people in one of the buildings in the town of Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics said on Monday.
Several others were wounded in the attack and others are missing after a house sheltering displaced people was hit and rescue workers could not immediately reach them, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said.
Three barely operational hospitals in the area could not cope with the number of wounded, they added.
Groups of houses were bombed and some were set on fire in Jabalia and in Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, where the Israeli army has been operating for several weeks, residents said.
They said Israeli drones had dropped bombs in front of a school where displaced families were staying, suggesting it was intended to scare them into leaving.
Palestinians say the Israeli army is trying to drive people from the northern edge of Gaza through forced evacuations and bombings to create a buffer zone. The Israeli army denies this.
The Israeli military, which launched its offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the militant group attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, said its latest operations in northern Gaza are aimed at preventing militants from regrouping and launching attacks from those areas.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,400 people and displaced most of the population, Gaza officials say. Large parts of the enclave lie in ruins.
About 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage in a Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, according to Israeli data.
NEW PRESSURE ON THE Ceasefire
Israel agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week, but the conflict in Gaza has continued.
Officials in Cairo hosted talks between Hamas and the rival Fatah group led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the possible establishment of a committee to govern post-war Gaza.
Egypt has proposed that a board of non-partisan technocrats, overseen by Abbas’s authority, be ready to govern Gaza immediately after the war ends. Israel said Hamas should have no role in governance.
An official close to the negotiations said progress had been made, but no final agreement had been reached. Israel’s approval would be decisive in determining whether the board could fulfill its role.
Egyptian security officials also discussed with Hamas ways to achieve a ceasefire with Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the mediation told Reuters that Hamas stood by its condition that any deal must end the war and include the withdrawal of Israeli troops, but would show the flexibility needed to achieve that.
Israel has said that the war will only end when Hamas no longer rules Gaza and poses no threat to Israelis.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Sunday that there were some signs of progress toward the hostage deal, but that Israel’s terms for ending the war had not changed.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he thinks the prospect of a ceasefire and hostage deal is now more likely.
