Heavy clashes and more deadly aid chaos in Gaza
Heavy clashes and explosions shook Gaza, witnesses said yesterday, as the Red Crescent reported several people killed during the latest chaotic aid distribution in the territory’s north, where famine looms.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a new round of talks on a Gaza truce between Israel and Hamas militants, after a binding UN Security Council resolution last Monday demanded an “immediate ceasefire”.
A subsequent ruling by the world’s top court ordered Israel to ensure aid reaches desperate civilians.
“Half of Gazans are feeling ‘catastrophic’ hunger
Fighting has not eased – including around the territory’s largest hospital – and the latest toll from the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said at least 82 more people were killed in the previous 24 hours.
The Hamas press office reported more than 50 Israeli air strikes over the past day, with “civilian houses” targeted across the coastal territory, as well as tank fire in the Gaza City area and southern Gaza.
Israel’s military yesterday said it had struck dozens of targets, including militants and their compounds in central and northern Gaza.
Video released by the Palestinian Civil Defence agency on Friday showed a vehicle splayed open after a strike on a street in Gaza City. Men carried two wrapped bodies to an ambulance, while others recovered items from the exposed interior of the vehicle and put them into a bag.
The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 32,705 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.
Netanyahu’s office said new talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release will take place in Doha and Cairo “in the coming days... with guidelines for moving forward in the negotiations”.
Talks had appeared deadlocked despite a major push by the United States – which provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel – and fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar to secure a truce for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, now more than halfway through.
In its ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague said it had accepted South Africa’s argument that the further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza required Israel to do more, with famine now “setting in”.
More evidence of the desperation in Gaza came yesterday.
The Palestine Red Crescent said five people were killed and dozens injured by gunfire and a stampede during an aid delivery in Gaza’s north.
It is the latest incident of its kind in north Gaza, where a UNbacked report has projected famine by May unless urgent intervention occurs.
The report released on March 19 warned that half of Gazans are feeling “catastrophic” hunger.