Israel’s military struck the Gaza Strip on Monday, a day after truce talks in Cairo coincided with a major but brief cross-border escalation involving Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Mediators held meetings in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, but reported no breakthrough in months of protracted negotiations as the fighting in Gaza raged on.
Witnesses and AFP correspondents reported airstrikes and shelling in Gaza City and other parts of the besieged Palestinian territory overnight, and Israel’s military said it had struck militants in the south.
Medics said an airstrike on a Gaza City house killed at least five people, with two rescuers telling AFP more victims may be buried in the ruins in Al-Rimal neighborhood.
“There are still martyrs and body parts under the rubble, most of them women, men and elderly people who were sleeping” when the building was hit, ambulance driver Hussein Muhaysen said.
An Israeli military statement said troops had “eliminated” dozens of militants over the past day in the southern areas of Khan Yunis and Rafah, and near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Israeli forces also struck a rocket launcher in Khan Yunis, the military said, after a launch late on Sunday at central Israel claimed by Hamas.
‘Where Will We Go?’
A Hamas official said that a delegation from the group met mediators in Egypt’s capital on Sunday. It had also been planned that Israeli negotiators would go to Cairo.
The talks have been based on a framework laid out in late May by US President Joe Biden and a “bridging proposal” Washington put forth earlier this month with support from Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
A main stumbling block has been Israel’s rejection of Hamas’ long-standing demand for a “complete” Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it must keep control of several strategic areas to stop Hamas from arming.
More than 10 months of war have left large parts of Gaza in ruins, ravaged its healthcare system and sparked a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of famine.
A batch of polio vaccines entered Gaza on Sunday, Israeli authorities said. UN agencies have planned a mass inoculation drive after the first case there in 25 years was confirmed.
Successive Israeli evacuation orders have forced many Gazans, often already displaced at least once by the war, to move again.
With AFP
