Israel will send negotiators to truce talks in Paris on Friday, Israeli media said, as Palestinians in Gaza hoped for a ceasefire that could hold off a full-blown Israeli assault on Rafah, after it endured one of its worst bombardments of the conflict.
Palestinian health officials said 97 people were confirmed killed and 130 wounded in the last 24 hours of Israeli assaults on Gaza, but many more victims were still under rubble.
They later said a bombardment in the central Gaza Strip killed a further 23 people, half of them women and children, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
Israeli bombing flattened a mosque and destroyed homes in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, in a fierce surge of violence in the city where over half of the Gaza’s 2.3 million people are huddled, mostly in tents.
Residents said the bombing was the heaviest since an Israeli raid on the city 10 days ago that freed two hostages and killed scores of civilians.
Israel has threatened to launch a full-blown attack on Rafah, the last city at Gaza’s southern edge, despite international pleas — including from its main ally Washington — for restraint.
Several European foreign ministers expressed, in a joint statement on Thursday, their concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the suffering of the hostages and “the Israeli government’s plans for a possible ground operation in Rafah.”
They said an Israeli military action in Rafah “would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation and prevent the urgently needed provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
Residents who have fled to Rafah from elsewhere say there is nowhere left to go. Meanwhile, an already meagre aid flow has almost completely dried up.
Dozens trapped in besieged hospital
In Khan Younis, the territory’s principal battlefield since Israel launched an assault on the city last month, Israeli forces raided Nasser Medical Complex, shortly after withdrawing from it, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has evacuated more than 50 patients from the besieged, the main medical complex in the southern Gaza Strip, but at least 140 are still inside.
Hundreds of staff, patients and others inside the hospital have struggled under heavy fire and dwindling supplies, including food and water.
The medical complex was raided by Israeli forces last week, after troops besieged the facility for nearly a week beforehand.
The army said it was seeking the remains of hostages taken by Hamas.
Ayadil Saparbekov, a top WHO official in the Palestinian territories, said his agency has so far helped relocate 51 patients in three missions, moving them to other medical facilities.
“We still have around 140 patients remaining in the hospital but these figures unfortunately change every hour,” he said, adding that some patients end up succumbing to their wounds while others choose to flee.
Since the conflict erupted, Israeli forces have targeted several hospitals, arguing that Hamas uses them as cover for its fighters.
Only 13 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, according to WHO.
Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates more than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Israeli military launched air and ground offensives in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led militant attack on southern Israel.
According to the Israeli government, militants killed some 1,200 people, including civilians and soldiers, and took around 250 people hostage. About a fourth of the approximately 130 captives still being held in Gaza are believed to be dead.
For the third time, the U.S. has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program says it cannot get food to the north of the Gaza Strip because of safety concerns.
West Bank violence
Tensions are also rising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where three Palestinian gunmen opened fire on morning traffic at a highway checkpoint, killing one man and wounding eight others, including a pregnant woman, Israeli police said.
Police said the attackers took advantage of the slow morning traffic around 7:30 a.m. Thursday on the main highway east of Jerusalem and opened fire with automatic weapons at cars waiting near a checkpoint.
Security forces at the site killed two of the gunmen. A third was found during searches of the area afterward and was detained.
Hamas praised the attack in Jerusalem and said it was a “natural response” to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and raids in the West Bank.
But the militant group did not claim responsibility for the attack.
The situation in the West Bank is worsening ahead of the March 10 start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which in the past has seen increased clashes, often in connection to restrictions imposed on Palestinian worshippers going to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Israel’s hardline national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called for tight restrictions on Muslim prayers this year.
But no final decisions have been made.
Tempers are likely to be even more volatile this year over the Gaza war and spiraling violence in the West Bank.
Late Thursday, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said one man was killed and 15 wounded, two critically, in an Israeli attack on a car in the Jenin refugee camp.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment, but it often operates in the area in what it says is a crackdown on militants.
An open letter signed by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and a number of prominent mosques says MPs who refuse to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza will not be ‘provided with a platform to address our congregations.’
Negotiators bound for Paris
Israel’s Channel 12 television reported on Thursday that the war cabinet approved sending negotiators, led by the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, to Paris for talks on a potential deal to free the hostages Palestinian militants are believed to be holding.
The political head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, has been in Egypt this week in the strongest sign in weeks that negotiations remain alive.
Israel’s defence minister said Israel “will expand the authority” of its hostage negotiators.
The comments by Yoav Gallant signal a small sign of progress in ongoing international efforts to broker a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Late Wednesday, Benny Gantz, who sits on Israel’s war cabinet with Gallant and Netanyahu, repeated his stance that Israel will invade Rafah if there isn’t a hostage deal by the start of Ramadan.
Hamas says it will not free the remaining hostages unless Israel agrees to end fighting and withdraw.
Israel says it will not pull out until Hamas is eradicated.
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