by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Suhaib Salem
GAZA (Reuters) – The Israeli army resumed its intensive bombings on the Gaza Strip on Friday, particularly in the south of the enclave, while warning sirens sounded again in southern Israel, the The Jewish state and Palestinian Hamas blame each other for the lack of agreement to extend the truce observed for a week.
Reuters journalists in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip said they heard intense shelling and saw smoke rising from the eastern part of the town as the truce expired, while residents fled in search of shelter or transported the dead and wounded to hospitals.
In the north of the enclave, until then the main battlefield, immense columns of smoke were visible above the ruins from Israeli territory.
Health workers and witnesses reported that the bombings were particularly heavy in Khan Younes and Rafah, two areas in the south of the Gaza Strip where, since October 7, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled the fighting which was mainly taking place in the north.
At the nearby Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, the first wave of wounded included men and boys.
The Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, reported 109 dead and dozens injured in these new Israeli bombardments on Gaza, just hours after the resumption of fighting.
The Israeli army said it had “resumed combat operations”, accusing Hamas of having fired rockets towards Israel in violation of the truce. It declared that its air force was bombing “terrorist targets”.
The Israeli government further criticized the Palestinian Islamist movement for refusing the release of additional hostages needed to extend the truce, including all the women it has been holding captive since kidnapping around 240 people during its October 7 attack in southern Israel.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said Israel bore responsibility for “the resumption of war and aggression” after rejecting all proposals for further releases of hostages.
The Al Quds brigades, the armed branch of Islamic Jihad, another movement active in the Gaza Strip, for their part claimed to have attacked Israeli towns on Friday morning in retaliation for “crimes against (the) Palestinian people”.
The truce between Israel and Hamas, which began on November 24 and was extended twice, allowed the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid in the Palestinian enclave, devastated by seven weeks of conflict.
The delivery of this aid and fuel via the Rafah terminal, on the border between Gaza and Egypt, was interrupted with the resumption of fighting, we learned from Egyptian security and humanitarian sources.
QATAR SAYS MAINTAINING CONTACTS WITH ISRAEL AND HAMAS
Qatar, whose mediation with Egypt had led to this week-long lull, declared that negotiations were continuing with both Israel and the Palestinians to try to re-establish the truce.
The resumption of fighting has aroused the consternation of a large part of the international community, Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, deeming it “catastrophic” while Catherine Colonna, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke for his part of “very bad, regrettable news (which) provides no solution and (…) complicates the resolution of all the questions that arise”.
Israel dropped leaflets on the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Yunis on Friday, ordering residents to evacuate the area. Unlike previous similar orders, this time Israel is not asking them to leave for other districts of Khan Yunis but for Rafah, further south, an already overpopulated city.
“You must evacuate immediately and go to shelters in the Rafah sector. Khan Younes is a dangerous combat zone. You will have been warned,” it is written in Arabic.
105 HOSTAGES RELEASED IN SEVEN DAYS
Both the Israeli government and Hamas showed their determination after a week of truce.
“With the resumption of fighting, we emphasize: the Israeli government is determined to achieve its war goals – free our hostages, eliminate Hamas and ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to the people of Israel,” said in a statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ezzat el Rachk, member of the Hamas political bureau, quoted on the website of the Islamist movement, said for his part: “What Israel did not obtain during the 50 days before the truce, it will not obtain by continuing its aggression after the truce.”
Israel previously demanded the release of at least 10 hostages per day to extend the truce, which freed 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners in seven days.
As fewer women and children remain captive in the Gaza Strip, continued releases could be complicated by the need to include men.
The Jewish state has vowed to annihilate Hamas after the attack carried out on October 7 by the Palestinian group in southern Israel which left 1,200 dead in addition to some 240 people kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
In retaliation for the Hamas attack, Israel carried out an intense bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, where it then launched a ground offensive. This response has so far caused more than 15,000 deaths in the partly devastated enclave, according to local authorities led by Hamas, whose toll is considered reliable by the United Nations.
This resumption of fighting comes while the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is in the region. The head of American diplomacy did not comment on the situation this Friday, while he is due to fly to the United Arab Emirates.
On Thursday, he said he told Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel could not reproduce in southern Gaza the heavy human toll and massive population displacements inflicted in the north of the enclave.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Mohammed Salem and Roleen Tafakji in Gaza, Humeyra Pamuk in Tel Aviv, Ari Rabinovich and Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Andrew Mills in Doha and Reuters editorial staff, written by Cynthia Osterman and Lincoln Feast, version French Camille Raynaud, Bertrand Boucey and Kate Entringer, edited by Zhifan Liu and Blandine Hénault)
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