Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on residential buildings and a mosque in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on residential buildings and a mosque in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
Israeli strikes killed at least 48 people in southern and central Gaza overnight, half of them women and children, health officials said on Thursday. European foreign ministers and UN agencies called for a ceasefire, with alarm rising over the worsening humanitarian crisis and potential starvation in the territory.
Tensions were also rising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where three Palestinian gunmen on Thursday opened fire on morning traffic at a highway checkpoint, killing one person and wounding five others, Israeli police said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced on Thursday the government “will expand the authority given to our hostage negotiators”. His comments, delivered in a meeting with US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, signalled a small sign of progress in ceasefire talks.
Benny Gantz, who sits on Israel’s War Cabinet with Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Wednesday new attempts were under way to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war in Gaza and bring the release of aboutd 130 Israeli hostages held by the militants since their October 7 attack on southern Israel. It was the first Israeli indication of new efforts since negotiations stalled a week ago.
But Gantz, a former military chief and Defence Minister, repeated his pledge that unless Hamas agrees to release the remaining hostages, Israel will launch a ground offensive into Gaza’s southernmost town, Rafah, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins about March 10.
More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million is crowded into Rafah after fleeing fighting and bombardment elsewhere in the territory. Israel has said it will evacuate them before attacking. But it is not clear where they would go, with much of the rest of the tiny Mediterranean enclave consumed in combat — raising fears civilian casualties could spiral in an Israeli assault that has already killed more than 29,400 people.
Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on residential buildings and a mosque in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
The heads of 13 UN agencies and five other aid groups issued a joint plea for a ceasefire on Wednesday, warning an attack on Rafah would bring mass casualties and could deal a death blow to the humanitarian operation bringing aid to Palestinians, which “is already on its knees”. This week, the World Food Programme had to halt food deliveries to northern Gaza because of increasing chaos.
“Diseases are rampant. Famine is looming,” they said, adding that aid workers are facing “shelling, death, movement restrictions and a breakdown of civil order”. They called for the opening of more entry points for aid to Gaza — including in the north — security assurances of safe passage for distribution, and a release of hostages.
If outbreaks of infectious disease, already growing, become severe, they could ultimately cause more deaths than the offensive, a senior official with the World Health Organisation said. “Infectious disease is a major concern for us in Gaza,” Richard Brennan, WHO’s regional emergency director, said at a briefing in Cairo.
The foreign ministers of 26 European countries on Thursday called for a pause in fighting leading to a longer ceasefire. They urged Israel not to take military action in Rafah “that would worsen an already-catastrophic humanitarian situation”.
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, in a position near the Israel-Gaza border. Photo / AP
West Bank shooting and Ramadan tensions
Thursday’s shooting came at a checkpoint on a West Bank highway where the gunmen opened fire on cars in the morning rush-hour traffic jam. An Israeli man in his 20s was killed and five others wounded, including a pregnant woman. Security forces killed two of the gunmen and detained the third, police said.
Hamas on Thursday 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, and called for more attacks until they can achieve a “fully sovereign” Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The militant group did not claim responsibility for the attack.
Tensions are rising in the West Bank in the lead-up to Ramadan, which in the past has seen increased clashes, often in connection to restrictions imposed on Palestinian worshippers going to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City during the holy month.
Israel’s hardline National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called for tight restrictions on Muslim prayers this year, including limits on Palestinian citizens of Israel. But no final decisions have been made.
Tempers are likely to be even more volatile this year over the Gaza war and spiralling violence in the West Bank.
Since the war began, the Israeli army has carried out near-nightly raids across the West Bank, arresting more than 3200 Palestinians, including 1350 it says are suspected Hamas members. Almost 400 Palestinians have been killed during the operations, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli settlers have stepped up attacks on Palestinians, and there have been militant shooting attacks against Israeli civilians.
A flurry of Israeli strikes that hit Rafah on Thursday flattened a large mosque and devastated much of the surrounding block. Photo / AP
Bombardment continues
A flurry of seven Israeli strikes hit Rafah on Thursday, one of them flattening a large mosque and devastating much of the surrounding block. Footage from the scene showed al-Farouq Mosque pancaked to the ground, with its concrete domes tumbled around it and nearby buildings shattered.
Another strike hit a residential home in Rafah sheltering the al-Shaer family, killing at least four people, including a mother and her child.
Strikes in central Gaza overnight killed 44 people, including 14 children and eight women, according to hospital officials there.
Israel’s bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 29,400 people and wounded more than 69,000, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Thursday. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but has said about two-thirds of the dead are women and children.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, after the October 7 attack, in which militants from the territory stormed into southern Israeli communities, killing aboutd 1200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping around 250 people. About 100 hostages were released in a swap for Palestinian prisoners during a weeklong ceasefire in November. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying it operates among the population.
The United States, Israel’s top ally, has been working with mediators Egypt and Qatar to try to broker a deal for a ceasefire of several months with the release of hostages.
But talks stalled last week after Netanyahu rejected Hamas’ demands for any hostage release: a complete end to Israel’s offensive in Gaza and withdrawal of its troops, along with the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants.
