Israel bombs Gaza and mediators step up pressure to achieve a truce

Israeli forces raided and bombed several neighborhoods on Monday Gaza Cityforcing residents to flee, after Hamas and Israel put forward their demands for a possible truce following nine months of war.

In recent months, hopes for a truce agreement have repeatedly come up against the incompatible differences of both sides, despite international pressure to end a war that has caused a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, threatened with famine, according to the UN.

But in a move to relaunch negotiations – mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt – on a ceasefire and the release of hostages still held in Gaza, Hamas gave in on Sunday to their demand for a permanent ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the war threatens to spark a new conflict in Israel’s neighbour Lebanon, following an intensification of gunfire between the Israeli army and the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, which opened a front on October 8 in support of its ally Hamas.

“Dozens of martyrs and wounded”

Fighting continued on Monday in the Palestinian territory, where Israeli soldiers raided several neighborhoods in Gaza Cityin the north, and thousands of inhabitants had to flee, said witnesses and Civil Defense.

There were “dozens of martyrs and wounded” in some neighbourhoods, according to the Civil Defence, which said it was unable to provide assistance due to the intensity of the shooting.

Israeli tanks have taken up positions in several neighborhoods and others are continuing to advance, with air support, the witnesses added.

The army issued an evacuation order over loudspeakers for residents of the Al Daraj and Al Tuffah neighbourhoods in Gaza City.

Some 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip are besieged by Israel, with shortages of water and food, and where more than 80% of the population has been displaced, according to the UN.

In the Shujaiya district, “dozens of terrorists were eliminated,” the Israeli army said.

In Rafah, in the far south on the border with Egypt, “more than 30 terrorists were eliminated” and rocket launching sites in Khan Yunis were bombed, he added.

The war broke out on October 7, when Islamist commandos killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 in southern Israel, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

The Israeli army estimates that 116 people remain captive in Gaza, 42 of whom are believed to have died.

Israel promised to annihilate Hamaswhich has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, considers it a terrorist organisation, as do the United States and the EU.

In response to the attack, Israel launched an offensive in the Palestinian territory that has killed 38,193 people, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

After launching a ground offensive on May 7 in Rafah to eliminate, according to Israel, “the last battalions of Hamas”, the army was faced with a resurgence of the movement in the north of the Strip.

“It blocks everything”

Amid diplomatic efforts to resume negotiations for a truce, a senior Hamas official said on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity, that his movement was no longer demanding a permanent ceasefire before negotiations.

“The ball is in the Israelis’ court”“, the official said.

“This point has been overcome,” he added, and in exchange, the mediators have “committed that, as long as negotiations are ongoing,” which have not yet begun, “a ceasefire will remain in force,” he added.

Hamas told the mediators that it wanted three stages to be completed, he said, including the entry of 400 trucks of aid into Gaza per day and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the “Philadelphia corridor and the Rafah border crossing.”

Hamas has so far demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Loop and a permanent ceasefire.

But Netanyahu’s office said Sunday that “any agreement would allow Israel to return and fight until all the war objectives are achieved,” meaning the destruction of Hamas and the release of all hostages.

Israel has previously said it would send a delegation to Doha in the coming days for talks with Qatari mediators.

“Netanyahu’s intentions are clear. Every time there is progress towards an agreement, he blocks everything and intensifies the aggression against our people”a Hamas official said Monday on condition of anonymity.

To increase the pressure on the Israeli government, new demonstrations will take place in Israel on Monday.

So far, international mediators have only succeeded in getting the two sides to reach a truce at the end of November, which allowed the release of 80 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in Israel.