Gazans had been relying on Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s Cairo journey to safe a last-gasp truce deal as Israeli bombs flattened a mosque and destroyed houses in Rafah on Thursday.
Mourners wept over not less than seven corpses in physique baggage, laid out on cobbles exterior a morgue within the metropolis laborious towards the Egyptian border, the place over half of the Palestinian enclave’s 2.3 million individuals at the moment are huddling, principally in tents.
“They took the people I love, they took a piece of my heart,” wailed Dina al-Shaer, whose brother and his household had been killed in a strike that family members stated hit their house shortly after midnight.
Gaza well being authorities stated 97 individuals had been confirmed killed and 130 wounded within the final 24 hours of Israeli assaults, however most victims had been nonetheless underneath rubble or in areas rescuers couldn’t attain.
The al-Farouk mosque within the middle of Rafah was flattened into slabs of concrete, the facades of adjoining buildings blasted away. Authorities stated 4 homes had been struck within the south of the town and three within the middle.
Residents stated the bombing was the heaviest since an Israeli raid on the town 10 days in the past that freed two hostages and killed scores of civilians.
“We couldn’t sleep, the sounds of explosions and planes roaring overhead didn’t stop,” stated Jehad Abuemad, 34, dwelling together with his household in a tent. “We could hear children crying in nearby tents, people here are desperate and defenseless and Israel is showing its power on them.”
Gaza authorities stated not less than 20 individuals had been additionally killed by the bombing of two homes in a central a part of the Gaza Strip, the one different substantial space but to be stormed by Israeli forces of their five-month assault.
Israel launched its brutal warfare on Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion of southern Israel killed 1,160 individuals and seized 253 hostages.
Since then, almost 30,000 individuals have been confirmed killed in Gaza, in response to well being authorities, with hundreds extra feared useless and unrecovered underneath buildings diminished to wasteland.
Cairo talks
Israel has threatened to launch a full-blown assault on Rafah, the final metropolis at Gaza’s southern edge, regardless of worldwide pleas – together with from its primary ally Washington – that such motion may trigger a massacre.
Residents who’ve fled to Rafah from elsewhere say there’s now nowhere left to go. Meanwhile, an already meager assist movement has nearly utterly dried up over the past two weeks, with the United Nations saying it’s typically not protected sufficient to move it, forcing residents to the brink of famine.
The heads of the primary U.N. reduction companies, together with UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and the WHO, launched a joint letter pleading for a direct humanitarian cease-fire.
“Diseases are rampant. Famine is looming. Water is at a trickle. Basic infrastructure has been decimated. Food production has come to a halt. Hospitals have turned into battlefields. One million children face daily traumas,” they wrote.
Any additional escalation into crowded Rafah “would cause mass casualties. It could also deal a death blow to a humanitarian response that is already on its knees,” they added.
Talks to succeed in a cease-fire failed two weeks in the past, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a counteroffer from Hamas for a four-and-a-half-month truce that might finish with an Israeli withdrawal.
Hamas continues to be believed to be holding greater than 100 hostages seized on Oct. 7. The group says it won’t free them until Israel agrees to finish the combating and withdraw from Gaza. Israel says it won’t withdraw till Hamas is eradicated.
The arrival of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Cairo this week for his first publicly introduced go to since December was the strongest signal for weeks that negotiations haven’t been deserted. Haniyeh has met Egyptian officers concerned in mediating, however to this point, little has been stated in public.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, instructed Reuters that Israel was now backtracking on phrases Israel had already accepted at first of February in a cease-fire provide hammered out with the United States and Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Paris.
“The occupation is not interested in achieving any agreement,” he stated, accusing Netanyahu of ignoring the difficulty of liberating captives in a prisoner swap. “All he is concerned about is continuing the execution of Palestinians in Gaza.”
There was no fast response from Israeli officers to the feedback. Netanyahu has stated he wouldn’t conform to Hamas’ “delusional demands,” however that if the group had been to point out flexibility, progress can be attainable.
On Wednesday, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s warfare cupboard, stated there have been “promising early signs” of a deal to free the hostages, however that with out a deal Israel would struggle on.
“We will not stop looking for a way and we will not miss any opportunity to bring our girls and boys home,” he stated.
Source: www.dailysabah.com