GAZA CITY, Palestine
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been killed and injured in intensified Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since the start of the latest round of cease-fire talks in Qatar last week.
— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) August 19, 2024
Despite international calls for a cease-fire, Israel has continued its military operations across Gaza on claims of achieving “its security needs” before any negotiations.
The Israeli assaults are seen as an attempt to impose its conditions and pressure Hamas and the international community to accept its demands by increasing the pace of military operations and attacks against civilians.
“The Israeli army continued to commit crimes and massacres against civilians in Gaza,” Ismail Thawabteh, the head of Gaza’s government media office, told Anadolu.
“It has escalated its attacks in the last five days, committing 13 new massacres as a tool of political pressure to achieve political goals,” he said.
As the latest round of Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap talks opened in Qatari capital, Doha, on Thursday, the Israeli army killed at least 12 people in attacks in Gaza City and Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Another 12 civilians were killed in Israeli attacks in Khan Younis and Gaza City on Friday.
Health authorities also reported three Israeli “massacres” on Saturday, leaving at least 26 civilians dead. At least 21 people were also killed in Israeli attacks in the battered enclave on Sunday.
Massacres
According to Palestinian figures, at least 134 civilians were killed and 342 others injured in Israeli attacks in Gaza since Thursday.
“These massacres are part of Israel’s escalation and war of genocide against civilians, and its deliberate bombing of civilian homes and intentional and deliberate killing of the largest possible number of martyrs,” Thawabteh said.
Israel also preempted the cease-fire talks by issuing wide-scale evacuation orders in various areas of the Gaza Strip, particularly in the central and eastern parts of Khan Younis.
On Friday, the Israeli army ordered civilians to evacuate their areas east of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, including Al-Qarara, Hamad residential city, and areas in Al-Mawasi, which was designated by Tel Aviv as a “humanitarian safe zone.”
Evacuation orders were also issued on Saturday for residents of the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, triggering a mass exodus of civilians in the area.
The army also expanded its military operations in Khan Younis, moving beyond Hamad residential city westward, coming within hundreds of meters of the area classified by Israel as a “humanitarian safe zone.”
Complicating the situation further, the Israeli army targeted displacement tents multiple times, exacerbating civilian suffering in an attempt to give Israeli negotiators additional leverage.
Targeting journalists
On Sunday, TRT Arabic reporter Sami Barhoum was injured by Israeli army fire, while another journalist, Salma Qadumi, was shot in the back in Khan Younis.
Gaza’s emergency and rescue teams managed Monday morning to recover the body of journalist Ibrahim Marwan Muhareb, who was killed when the Israeli army targeted a group of journalists covering events in the same area.
West Bank
In the West Bank, the Israeli army and illegal settlers carried out military attacks against Palestinians and their property, killing three civilians and detaining several others, displacing communities and burning residents’ homes and property.
On Thursday evening, about 100 illegal Israeli settlers attacked the village of Jit, east of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, killing one civilian and injuring several others, according to Palestinian medical sources.
Illegal settlers also burned three vehicles and Palestinian homes in Jit in what was described as the most violent attack in several months.
According to Palestinian figures, at least 18 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by illegal settlers in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023.
On Friday, Moataz Besharat, who is in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement building in Tubas and Northern Jordan Valley, said at least 14 Palestinian families were displaced from the Um al-Jamal area due to increased illegal settler attacks.
On Saturday, another two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a Palestinian vehicle in the West Bank city of Jenin.
The Israeli army carried out a series of raids in the West Bank with focus on the cities of Nablus, Qalqilya, and Tulkarem, arresting more than 80 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society.
Hamas’ response
In response to these Israeli attacks, the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed several attacks against Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and a bombing attack in Tel Aviv.
On Monday, the Qassam Brigades said the Tel Aviv attack was carried out in collaboration with the Islamic Jihad group.
Hamas said that its fighters also engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli army forces west of Khan Younis.
A day earlier, the resistance group said its fighters managed to detonate two explosive devices against Israeli infantry force west of Al-Hawouz area, north of Khan Younis.
It also claimed to have successfully targeted a group of 10 soldiers with an anti-personnel grenade in Tel al-Hawa neighborhood southwest of Gaza City.
On Saturday, Hamas claimed to have detonated two anti-personnel devices at Israeli military vehicles in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood and engaged in clashes with automatic machine guns with Israeli forces.
They also targeted Mivtahim and Nirim military posts and Israeli forces stationed at Netzarim Junction with short-range rockets.
Hamas’ armed wing also said Thursday that it had launched an explosives-laden drone towards Israeli forces east of Khan Younis.
Gaza cease-fire talks in Doha concluded on Friday by presenting "a proposal that narrows the gaps" between Israel and Hamas that is consistent with the principles set out by US President Joe Biden on May 31.
Biden said in May that Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a cease-fire, a hostage-prisoner exchange, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
But Hamas said on Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set new conditions in the Gaza cease-fire and hostage swap proposal that was floated during the Doha talks.
“The new proposal meets Netanyahu's conditions and aligns with them, particularly his refusal of a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and his insistence on continuing the occupation of the Netzarim Junction (which separates the north and south of the Gaza Strip), the Rafah crossing, and the Philadelphi Corridor (in the south),” Hamas said in a statement.
“He also set new conditions in the hostage swap file and retracted from other terms, which obstructs the completion of the deal,” it added.
The resistance group called on the mediators “to fulfill their responsibilities and compel the occupation (Israeli) to implement what has been agreed upon.”
For months, the US, Qatar, and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’ demands to stop the war.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
The Israeli onslaught has since killed more than 40,130 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,700, according to local health authorities.
More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala
