Photo: Eyad Baba Agence France-Presse In Nousseirat, in the center of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians say that a bombing caused “a terrible explosion” last night.
Published at 8:43 am
Israeli strikes targeted the Gaza Strip on Wednesday on the eve of new discussions on a cease-fire, forcefully demanded by the United States which hopes for a truce agreement to deter Iran to launch an attack against Israel.
Faced with the risk of an extension of the war to the entire Middle East, the international community is increasing pressure on the Iran to renounce an armed response against Israel, accused by Tehran of having assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital on July 31.
The Israeli army is meanwhile continuing its offensive in the Palestinian territory where the war, triggered by the unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7, has left nearly 40,000 dead, according to the Islamist movement.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that a ceasefire could prevent an Iranian attack on Israel. “That's what I believe,” he said, assuring that he was “not giving up” on this objective even though negotiations are becoming “difficult.”
There is “no more time to lose,” said an American envoy, Amos Hochstein, in Beirut on Wednesday to reach a ceasefire that would also put an end to exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and the movement. Lebanese Islamist Hezbollah, ally of Hamas and Iran.
Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have threatened Israel with reprisals since the assassination of the Hamas leader and the July 30 assassination of Fouad Chokr, the military leader of Hezbollah, killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut.
On Tuesday, Iran rejected a call from several Western countries to desist from attacking Israel.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on X-News on Wednesday that his country remained “on high alert.” “I want to express my gratitude […] to our allies who stand with us in the face of the heinous threats from the Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies,” he added.
The United States, which has strengthened its military presence in the region, approved on Tuesday the sale of arms worth more than $20 billion to Israel.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000At the call of the mediating countries, Qatar, the United States and Egypt, new discussions on a ceasefire are to open on Thursday, based on a plan announced on May 31 by Joe Biden.
The first stage of this plan provides for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from the areas densely populated Gaza and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Israel said its negotiators would take part in the talks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office detailed its conditions on Tuesday, including “a veto on some prisoners.”
A senior Hamas official said Wednesday that the movement was “continuing its consultations with the mediators.”
“Hamas really wants an end to the war and a ceasefire agreement based on the plan” Biden, according to another Hamas official.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union, after the attack on its soil killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted on October 7, 111 are still being held in Gaza, including 39 who have died, according to the army.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive on the Gaza Strip has left at least 39,965 people dead, including at least 36 in 24 hours, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza government, which does not provide details on the number of civilians and fighters killed.
The Israeli army announced on Wednesday that it had carried out more than 40 airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on “terrorist infrastructure.”
It has indicated that it would continue its operations in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah, in the south of the territory, as well as in Khan Younis, also in the south, and in the centre of the Gaza Strip.
Civil Defense announced that it had pulled four bodies from the same family from the rubble of a bombed apartment in Hamad, a huge residential complex built by Qatar near Khan Younis.
In Nusseirat, in central Gaza, Palestinians said that a bombing had caused “a terrible explosion” in the middle of the night.
“We were sleeping and we were surprised by a missile that hit the neighbors, the children, their father and mother,” said one man, Jihad Al-Sharif, adding that his family had found the remains of children in the street.
The war has plunged the Gaza Strip, under siege by Israel, into a humanitarian disaster and displaced almost all of its 2.4 million people. inhabitants.
Since August 1, “approximately one third of humanitarian missions inside Gaza have been refused by Israeli authorities,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday.
“The situation remains dire for civilians. No place is safe in Gaza, but civilians continue to be evacuated to ever-shrinking areas,” UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary Di Carlo said on Tuesday.
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