Heavy fighting persists in central Gaza on Friday as Cairo talks continue with no breakthrough on the horizon. Meanwhile, the imminent threat of an Iranian reprisal on Iran has sent regional tensions soaring.
Residents reported heavy Israeli fire in central Gaza on Friday, with regional tensions soaring after Iran threatened reprisals over a strike in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals.
As ceasefire talks aiming to pause the six-month-old war dragged on, fears that Iran could soon launch an attack on Israel spurred France to recommend its citizens avoid traveling to the region.
Mohammed al-Rayes, 61, told AFP that he fled Israeli “air strikes and artillery shelling” in Nuseirat, central Gaza, overnight.
“It was all fire and destruction, with so many martyrs lying in the street,” he said.
Israel pulled its troops from the devastated city of Khan Younes last week after months of fighting, but officials said they were preparing for operations against Hamas militants in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
Authorities in the coastal Palestinian territory on Friday reported dozens of new air strikes in Gaza’s central region.
Syria Strikes
Israel’s military said its aircraft had struck more than 60 militant targets in Gaza over the previous day.
The latest bombardments in Gaza came after Israel said it was strengthening air defenses and paused leave for combat units following a deadly April 1 air strike that destroyed Iran’s consulate building in Damascus.
Iran blamed Israel, its arch foe, which has stepped up strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria since the Gaza war began.
United States President Joe Biden had on Wednesday pledged “ironclad” support for Washington’s top regional ally, despite diplomatic tensions over Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.
US Central Command chief, General Michael Kurilla, was in Israel on Thursday to discuss the situation with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
France on Friday warned its nationals against traveling to Iran, Israel, Lebanon, or the Palestinian territories after the US embassy in Israel announced it was restricting the movements of its diplomats over security fears.
Netanyahu is under pressure from anti-government protesters and relatives of the hostages who are demanding the government get them home.
Tens of thousands have taken to the streets.
On Thursday night, hundreds demonstrated near Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence with a different call: for the war to continue.
Father’s Appeal
Washington has ramped up pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a truce, increase aid flows, and abandon plans to send troops into Rafah.
Israeli Defense Minister Gallant said on Wednesday that Israel would “flood Gaza with aid,” using an Israeli crossing point, streamlined checks, the Ashdod port, and two new routes organised with Jordan.
The UN says famine is imminent in Gaza, much of which has been reduced to a bombed-out wasteland.
Truce talks, which started on Sunday in Cairo, have brought no breakthrough on a plan presented by US, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators, which Hamas said it was studying.
The framework plan would halt fighting for six weeks and see the exchange of about 40 hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, as well as more aid deliveries.
Bassem Naim, of the Hamas political bureau, said a ceasefire is needed to locate Israeli hostages held by various groups across the territory and ascertain their fate.
Belal Al-Sabbagh, Jay Deshmukh, with AFP
