Thousands of Palestinian civilians are fleeing from northern Gaza to southern Gaza due to the ongoing clashes between the Israeli army and Hamas. Meanwhile, humanitarian ceasefire talks are underway in Qatar.
Thousands of Palestinian civilians once again fled the war-torn northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, where Israeli airstrikes and ground combat with Hamas are ongoing. Humanitarian ceasefire talks are underway in Qatar.
After over a month of Israeli airstrikes in response to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, according to the UN, several hundred thousand civilians remain trapped in a dire humanitarian situation in northern Gaza.
On Thursday, similar to the previous day, a crowd of men and women on foot, carrying their children, empty-handed or with small bundles, flooded the road leading south.
According to Israel, 50,000 people fleeing the conflict passed through a secured “evacuation corridor” opened during “tactical pauses” by the army, the same number as the day before.
According to the UN, 1.5 million people out of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants have been displaced by the war. Hundreds of thousands of distressed refugees are crowded in the South, where food reserves are dangerously low, according to the UN.
Ceasefire Negotiations
While Israel rules out a ceasefire without the prior release of hostages, Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea and CIA director Bill Burns have discussed a “potential humanitarian truce” with Qatari officials in Doha, according to an informed source.
The discussions also involve “the release of hostages and increased aid entering Gaza,” said the source.
A Hamas source in Gaza stated on Wednesday that negotiations led by Qatar focused on the release of twelve hostages, including six Americans, in exchange for a three-day humanitarian truce.
The Islamic Jihad, allied with Hamas in Gaza, announced in a video on Thursday that it was ready to release two Israeli hostages, a septuagenarian woman and a teenager, “if security conditions are met.”
Katrine Dige Houmøller
