Israel announced a new military campaign against Hamas in central Gaza on Wednesday and Palestinian medics said airstrikes there had killed dozens of people ahead of talks between U.S. and Qatari mediators to try to finalise a ceasefire deal.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they had fought gun battles with Israeli forces in areas throughout the enclave and fired anti-tank rockets and shells as the two sides sought the upper hand amid pressure to lay down their arms.
At least 44 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military strikes in central Gaza Strip areas since Tuesday, health officials in the enclave said.
“The sounds of bombardment didn’t stop all night,” said Aya, 30, a displaced woman in Deir Al-Balah.
Two children were among the dead laid out on Wednesday.
Mourners said they had been killed along with their mother, who had been unable to leave when others in the neighbourhood did.
“This is not war, it is destruction that words are unable to express,” said their father Abu Mohammed Abu Saif.
The Israeli military said jets were hitting Hamas militant targets in central Gaza while ground forces were operating “in a focused manner with guidance from intelligence” in the area of Al-Bureij —one of Gaza’s long-established refugee settlements.
“The forces of the 98th Division began a precise campaign in the areas of East Bureij and East Deir al-Balah, above and below ground at the same time,” an Israeli military statement said.
Residents said Israeli forces had sent tanks into Bureij and planes and tanks pounded the nearby settlements
of Al-Maghazi and Al-Nuseirat as well as Deir Al-Balah city, where tanks have not invaded.
“Every time they speak about new truce talks, the occupation uses one town or refugee camp as a pressuring card. Why should civilians, people safe inside their homes or tents, pay the price? Why can’t Arabs and the world stop the war?” Aya told Reuters via a chat app.
Aya, like many in the Gaza Strip, said people held out hopes that reported talks between officials from the US, Qatar, and Egypt in Doha on Wednesday would advance a ceasefire deal involving the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and some of the Palestinians jailed in Israel.