Israel intensifies air attacks on Palestinian refugees in Gaza

By: AFP
Published: 07:10 PM, 29 Dec, 2023
Israel intensifies air attacks on Palestinian refugees in Gaza
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Israeli forces on Thursday battled Hamas in Gaza where air strikes and urban combat rocked the southern city of Khan Yunis, near where many hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge.


UN World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for "urgent steps to alleviate the grave peril" facing besieged Gaza's people, including "terrible injuries, acute hunger and... severe risk of disease".


In Jerusalem, families of hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza again rallied for their release, and a kibbutz announced that a 70-year-old US-Israeli thought to be the oldest woman held captive had died in the October 7 attacks.


US President Joe Biden said he was "devastated" by the news Judith Weinstein Haggai was dead, and pledged that Washington will "not stop working" with its ally Israel to bring the remaining hostages home.


The war, which started with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, has left much of northern Gaza in ruins while the battlefront has shifted ever further to the south of the besieged territory.


The Israeli army said it had deployed an additional brigade to Khan Yunis, hometown of Hamas's Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, where AFP correspondents reported sustained air and artillery strikes.


The Palestinian Red Crescent society reported that shelling had killed at least 10 people near the city's Al-Amal hospital, an area where it said about 14,000 people are sheltering.


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Later Thursday, Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry said 20 people were killed, most of them women and children, and dozens wounded in shelling of the Shaboura camp in the southern city of Rafah.


Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack which left about 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.


Hamas on October 7 also took 250 hostages, more than half of whom remain captive -- a source of intense anxiety for their families who protested in Jerusalem with the demand to "bring them home".


Israel's relentless aerial bombardment and ground invasion have killed at least 21,320 people, mostly women and children, according to Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry.



Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the ministry, on Thursday reported an additional 200 deaths, "including entire families", over the past 24 hours in strikes.


The Israeli army says 167 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza in its fight against Hamas which Israel, the United States and European Union consider a "terrorist" group.


In total, the army said, more than 500 soldiers had been killed since October 7, including in the Hamas attack and the battle to retake control of southern Israel, inside Gaza, and in cross-border hostilities with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.



- Mideast tensions flare -


Violence has also flared across the Israel-occupied West Bank, with at least 314 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers since October 7, according to the territory's health ministry.


Israeli forces overnight raided money exchange shops across the West Bank which the military said had provided funds for armed groups.


In Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, one man was killed by the troops, according to the health ministry, and another was later shot near Bethlehem.


A UN report said the human rights situation in the West Bank was rapidly deteriorating and urged Israel to "end unlawful killings" against the Palestinian population.


The bloodiest ever Gaza war has also sharply heightened tensions between Israel and its long-time arch foe Iran, which supports armed groups across the Middle East.


Iran blamed Israel for a missile strike in Syria on Monday that killed the senior Iranian military commander Razi Moussavi, whose mass funeral took place in Tehran on Thursday.



The crowd chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led a prayer over the body of Moussavi, a top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' foreign operations arms the Quds Force.


Tehran has vowed to avenge the death of the most senior Guards general killed since the US assassination of Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in 2020.


Israel has traded heavy cross-border fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon since the Gaza war erupted, and warned it will step up military action unless Hezbollah militants withdraw further from the border.


Hezbollah accused Israel of hacking into CCTV camera systems installed outside homes and shops in southern Lebanon and urged residents there to take the devices offline.


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Hamas delegation to discuss Egypt's Gaza ceasefire plan


A Hamas delegation is due in Cairo Friday to give its "observations" about an Egyptian plan for a ceasefire that would end the war in Gaza, a Hamas official said.


The plan was put last week to officials of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which is also battling Israeli forces in the territory, when the chiefs of both movements visited the Egyptian capital.


Sources close to Hamas say Cairo's three-stage plan provides for renewable ceasefires, a staggered release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and ultimately a ceasefire to end the war sparked by the deadly October 7 attack on Israel.


It also provides for a Palestinian government of technocrats after talks involving "all Palestinian factions", which would be responsible for governing and rebuilding in post-war Gaza.


The Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Thursday about the planned visit by the Qatar-based Hamas political office. "A high-level delegation from the Hamas political office will visit Cairo tomorrow to meet Egyptian officials and give the response of the Palestinian factions, including several observations, to their plan," the official said.



The official said these observations focus on "the modalities of the planned exchanges and the number of Palestinian prisoners to be freed, as well as obtaining guarantees for a complete Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza".


Qatar, backed by Egypt and the United States, last month helped broker a first week-long truce in which 80 Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.


Diaa Rashwan, who heads Egypt's State Information Services, confirmed on Thursday that Cairo had put forward "a framework intended to bring together the views of all parties concerned, with the aim of ending the shedding of Palestinian blood, stopping the aggression against the Gaza Strip, and restoring regional peace and security".


"This proposal comprises three successive and interconnected stages leading to a ceasefire," Rashwan's statement said.


Rashwan said Egypt had not yet received a response to its initiative which would be made public "in detail" when Cairo had received feedback from all concerned.



Israel strikes south Syria and Damascus


Israeli air strikes hit southern Syria, the Syrian defence ministry said, with state media reporting attacks near the capital Damascus.


"At approximately 23:05 (20:05 GMT) today, the Israeli enemy carried out air strikes from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points in the southern region," the defence ministry said in a statement, reporting no casualties.


Israel rarely comments on strikes targeting Syria, but it has repeatedly said it will not allow arch-foe Iran, which backs President Bashar al-Assad's government, to expand its presence in the country.


"Our air defences are intercepting hostile targets in the vicinity of Damascus," official news agency SANA said.


"An Israeli attack targeted the vicinity of the capital Damascus," state television said.



The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported Israeli strikes targeting a Syrian air defence position in the country's southern Sweida province, as well as near Damascus international airport.


The attack near the airport came "one whole day after the airport resumed flights," said the British-based monitor with a network inside Syria.


Damascus international airport had been out of service since Israeli strikes targeted it in late November, just hours after flights resumed following similar attacks the previous month.


The airport was not damaged in the latest strike, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.



Israel kills two Palestinians in West Bank


Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in 24 hours in the occupied West Bank, the territory's health ministry said Thursday, after widespread raids by Israel targeted money exchange shops.


A Palestinian man was killed during an overnight raid in Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, the ministry said.


He was identified as Hazem Qattawi by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, which added that 14 others were wounded during clashes with soldiers and three more were arrested.


On Thursday evening, a 38-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces near Bethlehem in an incident not linked to the raids.


Categories : World

AFP

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