GAZA CITY: Under a fierce new Israeli attack on Thursday, residents of Gaza City were besieged in their homes and bodies lay uncollected in the streets, all the while Washington pressed for a peace agreement during negotiations in Egypt and Qatar.
About 60 dead have been discovered in Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood, which has been completely destroyed by a two-week Israeli operation, according to the civil defense organization in Gaza.
According to agency spokesman Mahmud Basal, “civil defense crews working with local residents managed to recover about 60 martyrs up to this point once the Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the Shujaiya neighborhood.”
Israel declared on Wednesday that it had completed its district-wide assault against Hamas.
Just when discussions are nearing their conclusion, Hamas claims that a massive Israeli attack on Gaza City this week might completely derail attempts to put an end to hostilities. The Palestinian organization said in a statement that since it made concessions last week in response to an Israeli peace offer sponsored by the US, the mediators had not yet given it updates on the status of the negotiations.
The chief of Israel’s Shin Bet security service is scheduled to visit Cairo for further peace negotiations, according to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While in Israel, US ambassador Brett McGurk had a meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
In order to achieve an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a truce and the release of prisoners, a number of specifics still need to be worked out, according to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Thursday.
“If we are able to close, there are still kilometers to go. Therefore, while I don’t want to suggest that it’s imminent, it doesn’t have to be far off if everyone approaches the situation with the determination to see it through to completion, Sullivan told reporters. He also stated that there has been no shift in US policy regarding the suspension of 2,000-pound bomb shipments to Israel.
President Joe Biden will provide an update on the state of the ceasefire negotiations, according to Sullivan as well.
“Crimes of war”
Calling for penalties on Israel, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that US President Joe Biden and his administration were implicated in Israeli war crimes and breaches of international law in the Gaza conflict.
During the NATO summit in Washington, Erdogan stated in an interview with Newsweek that Israel had committed war crimes by killing civilians in cold blood and by attacking hospitals, relief centers, and other locations.
But the US administration ignores these transgressions and gives Israel the greatest backing. Erdogan was cited as adding, “They do so at the expense of being complicit in these violations.”
Who will now apply what form of punishment to Israel for breaking international law? No one is responding to the actual question, he said.
Gaza City residents compare this week’s attack to the most intense battle of the offensive, which in the early weeks of combat last year demolished the largest and oldest community in the territory.
Before violence broke out, Gaza City was home to over 25% of the city’s population. It was mostly destroyed in late 2023, but many of Palestinians have since returned to their homes among the rubble. The Israeli military has now forced them to leave once more. Many declare they won’t attend.
“We’re not going south; we’re going to die. Mohammad Ali, 30, who was contacted by text message, stated, “We are ready to die as martyrs here. We have tolerated starvation and bombs for nine months.”
Ali added that his family has been through multiple moves inside the city and that they have been low on food, water, and medication. Israel, the occupation, bombards Gaza City as though a new conflict is breaking out. Although we hope for a ceasefire soon, God’s will will prevail in the absence of one.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, there have been reports of people being murdered and trapped inside their homes in Gaza City’s Tel Al Hawa and Sabra neighborhoods, where rescuers were unable to reach them.
According to the Civil Emergency Service, it was unable to retrieve bodies from the streets in the Tel Al-Hawa and Rimal regions, and it estimated that at least thirty people had died there.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army instructed the people of Gaza City to travel south via two “safe routes.” On social media, some people used the hashtag “We are not leaving.”
Residents of the Shejaia area, just east of Gaza City, were making their way back on foot to a barren moonscape of demolished structures after Israeli forces left after a two-week offensive.
