Following reports from both sides that a fresh round of indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in Qatar had not produced any results, Israel made its declaration.
Following the military’s announcement that it had started “extensive ground operations” in the northern and southern portions of the enclave, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office indicated on Sunday that Israel will relax its embargo and allow limited amounts of food to enter Gaza.
Israel has intensified its campaign in Gaza in response to growing criticism over a humanitarian blockade it imposed in March and the threat of famine. According to Palestinian health officials, hundreds of people have been killed in attacks in the previous week, including 130 overnight.
“At the recommendation of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and out of the operational need to enable the expansion of intense fighting to defeat Hamas, Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office stated.
U.N. assistance head Tom Fletcher’s spokesperson, Eri Kaneko, said that Israeli officials have asked the organization to “resume limited aid delivery,” but that talks are still going on regarding the practicalities “given the conditions on the ground.”
Following reports from both sides that a fresh round of indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in Qatar had not produced any results, Israel made its declaration.
Netanyahu said that in addition to a proposal to halt the war in exchange for the emigration of Hamas fighters and the demilitarization of the enclave—terms that Hamas has previously rejected—the talks also covered a truce and hostage agreement.
In a subsequent statement, the Israeli military implied that it could still reduce its activities in order to facilitate an agreement in Doha. According to the statement, military head Eyal Zamir assured troops in Gaza that the army will give the leaders of the territory the leeway they require to negotiate a hostage agreement.
In support of “Gideon’s Chariots,” Israel’s latest ground operation aimed at establishing “operational control” in sections of the enclave, the military claimed it had carried out a preliminary round of attacks on over 670 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past week. It claimed to have killed scores of Hamas combatants.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 464 Palestinians were killed in the week ending Sunday alone.
“Overnight Israeli bombardment erased entire families from the civil registration record,” Gaza health ministry official Khalil Al-Deqran told Reuters over the phone.
According to Gaza health authorities, the Israeli campaign has killed over 53,000 people, many of them civilians, and forced almost all of Gaza’s two million citizens from their homes.
Since the beginning of March, Israel has prohibited the entry of fuel, food, and medical supplies into Gaza in an effort to put pressure on Hamas to release its hostages. It has also approved measures that might entail taking control of aid and occupying the whole Gaza Strip.
Experts from throughout the world have warned of impending hunger.
QATAR TALKS
Regarding the Qatar talks, a Hamas source told Reuters, “Israel’s position remains unchanged; they want to release the prisoners (hostages) without a commitment to end the war.”
According to the Hamas source, Hamas was still offering to free all of its Israeli hostages in exchange for the cessation of the conflict, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the lifting of the aid embargo on Gaza, and the freeing of Palestinian prisoners.
According to a senior Israeli official, the negotiations have not advanced thus far.
Israel’s stated objective in Gaza is to destroy Hamas’s administrative and military capabilities. On October 7, 2023, Hamas assaulted Israeli communities, killing over 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and taking 251 hostages.
The mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, Einav Zangauker, said that Netanyahu was refusing to halt the conflict in return for the hostages for political reasons while in Israel.
The Israeli government continues to demand only partial agreements. They are torturing us on purpose. Please bring our kids back! In a social media post, Zangauker stated, “All 58 of them.”
TENTS ABLAZE
According to doctors, one of Israel’s overnight strikes on a tent encampment in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis that housed displaced families killed women and children, injured dozens, and set tents on fire.
Later on Sunday, Gaza’s health ministry announced that Israeli shelling had forced the Indonesian Hospital, one of the biggest partially operational medical institutions in northern Gaza, to close.
According to Israel’s military, its forces were pursuing “terrorist infrastructure sites” in northern Gaza, including the neighborhood around the hospital in Indonesia.
Reports in Israeli and Arab media on Sunday that Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar was killed in airstrikes on a tunnel beneath another hospital further south in Gaza last week were neither confirmed nor rejected by Hamas.
The hospital system in Gaza is hardly functioning, and its problems have been made worse by the assistance embargo. Hamas disputes Israel’s accusation that it stole aid.
The health ministry spokesperson, Al-Deqran, stated, “Hospitals are overwhelmed with a growing number of casualties; many are children.”
According to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service, a lack of fuel prevented 75% of its ambulances from operating. It issued a warning that all vehicles might cease within 72 hours.
