Israeli Strikes Claim Lives of 27 Palestinians as Gaza Conflict Enters 10th Month
At least 27 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza, marking another tragic day as the conflict in the besieged territory extends into its 10th month. Since dawn on Sunday, one of the attacks targeted a school sheltering displaced people west of Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of at least four Palestinians.
In the central Gaza Strip, the Israeli forces targeted a residential building in the al-Zawayda neighborhood; six people died, of which two were children, in a report by the Palestine Red Crescent Society. This came a day after over 16 people, including women and children, were killed and over forty injured when Israeli forces attacked a UN-operated school hosting displaced Palestinians.
Another house nearby dweller also said that six other Palestinians perished in a raid on another house in Gaza City, the paramedics said. Israeli jets also attacked several civilians on the Street 8 in Sabra area, the Wafa news agency said at least two civilian deaths.
The Israeli military said they bombed a building belonging to the Khan Younis municipality in southern Gaza late on Sunday, accusing the Hamas militant group of operating from the structure for ‘military purposes. ’ There were no reports of deaths from the Khan Younis raid. Hamas has maintained that it does not use civilians, students, and patients, in particular, as shields.
At the same time, the overall number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli airstrikes since October 7 is reported to be 38,153, the ministry said. It has been estimated that due to the continued conflict, 90% of Gazans are internally displaced, 489,000 people are experiencing a ‘catastrophic’ level of food insecurity, and the majority of hospitals have shut down, according to the UN.
With the increasing death toll, Gaza’s largest remaining hospital, Al-Aqsa Hospital, receives daily more injured people as a result of unrelenting Israeli bombings. Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia’s acting director, Dr. Muhammad Salha, lamented the situation, saying, “The situation is tough. ”
Fresh Diplomatic Efforts
Criticisms Despite the constant rain of lethal attacks, mediators from the US, Qatar, and Egypt are now trying to find a way to put an end to the nine-month war. Cairo-based Al Qahera News on August 15 said Israel and America have represented delegations in the meetings to negotiate the remaining issues of a ceasefire and release of hostages in the ongoing Gaza Strip conflict, according to a named high-level source.
It revealed that the mediators have been communicating with Hamas, especially with “intensive Egyptian meetings this week with all parties to bear pressure” on the push for a ceasefire. Israel also said it would dispatch an envoy to meet with Qatari mediators, although speaking on Friday, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there are discrepancies in the cease-fire with Hamas.
Thus, in May of the current year, US President Joe Biden outlined the plan consisting of an initial six-week ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners. A senior US official has said the new Hamas plan is constructive, saying it advances talks to a new level that could lead to sealing the deal.
Hamas communications director Osama Hamdan said in an interview with AFP news agency that ‘most of these ideas we conveyed through the mediators to the American side, and the Americans accepted them and conveyed them to the Israelis, saying now, for the ball is in the Israeli court.’
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group have also been targeting each other and frequently firing across the border since early October last year. Combined with the rhetoric, these attacks show indications of a complete war shortly. Around 6 a.m. local time Sunday, air raid alarms were heard across northern Israel, and as many as 20 rockets were fired, and the Israeli army and air defense systems intercepted some.
It should be noted that on Sunday, people’s demonstrations were held in various districts of Israel for a unity government to put pressure on Netanyahu to agree to release hostages detained in the Gaza Strip. They disrupted traffic during the peak hour at essential junctions, protested in front of the elected leaders’ dwellings, and burned tires on the principal Tel Aviv-Jerusalem motorway for a short time before the arrival of the police.
