Gaza Strip. The Israeli army launched a new barrage of bombings on the Gaza Strip yesterday, ahead of the round of negotiations to reach a ceasefire that will take place today in Doha, Qatar, without the participation of Hamas.
In the past 24 hours, the Israeli army has attacked “more than 40” targets in the territory. The Gaza civil defence agency said its teams rescued four people from the same family from the rubble of a residential complex near Khan Yunis. “We were asleep and we were surprised by a missile that fell on the neighbouring apartment,” Jihad Sharif told AFPTV from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Gazan Ministry of Health reported that at least 36 Palestinians were killed and 54 wounded by Israeli military actions in the past 24 hours. The number of Palestinians killed since October 7 has reached 39,965. That day, Hamas attacked Israeli communities, killing 1,200 and taking 250 hostage. According to the Ministry of Health, 92,206 were wounded and thousands are missing.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reports that it has eliminated at least 15,000 Hamas fighters. In the reoccupied West Bank, one man was killed in an Israeli raid in Tubas and four more were killed in a drone strike in Tammun. Residents of Tubas told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the man killed by Israeli troops was a Hamas member. The IDF said that at night they surrounded a house and “an air vehicle attacked several armed terrorists in Tammun,” a town in Tubas.
Against this backdrop, construction work has begun on a new settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said. “No anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of settlements. We will continue to fight against the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state. This is my life’s mission,” the far-right official said as he published plans for a new settlement in the West Bank.
Palestinian women mourn and comfort each other after the death of relatives at the Nasser hospital yesterday in Khan Yunis. Photo AFP
The United Nations considers settlements built in the West Bank and other territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war to be illegal under international law. Israel denies this, citing the Jewish people’s historical and biblical ties to the land.
Rejection of further proposals
Hamas has confirmed that it will not participate in the round of negotiations taking place today in Qatar.
“Going to further talks allows the occupation to impose new conditions and use the labyrinth of negotiation to carry out more massacres,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, leader of the Islamist group, in a statement published by the daily Palestine.
He added that “Hamas is committed to the proposal that was presented on July 2 and that is based on the UN Security Council resolution and President Joe Biden’s speech” and that the group is ready to immediately begin discussing a mechanism to implement such a formula.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that he will send an Israeli delegation to talks in Qatar aimed at negotiating a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, his office said. The negotiations, seen as a “last chance” to reach a deal to end the 313-day conflict in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, will be attended in Doha by mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
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– 2024-08-15 15:52:56
