The Hamas-run Gaza civil defence agency claimed on Friday that about 60 bodies have been found in an initial search of two Gaza City districts after Israeli troops withdrew following fighting this week. Most of the bodies were discovered under rubble, and other people are still missing, according to local officials.
Earlier this week, Israel told Gaza City residents to leave their homes and head south as the area was now a “dangerous” combat zone.
Palestinian sources also claim four international aid workers were killed in an Israeli strike on a warehouse containing humanitarian aid in Al Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel claims its commandos located weapons and a command room used by Hamas at the Gaza City Unrwa refugee agency headquarters, which has not been in use in recent months. A military statement said the troops captured militants who attempted to flee the facility, and engaged in battles with gunmen who were inside. The Israeli army says the commandos located an underground bomb-making laboratory and weapons in a nearby university building.
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According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 38,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7th. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack on that day. Some 116 hostages – Israel has confirmed the death of 42 of them – remain in Gaza.
The head of the US agency overseeing American humanitarian assistance worldwide said she has received Israeli pledges to allow aid workers to move more quickly and safely throughout the war-torn coastal enclave. Samantha Power, administrator of the Agency for International Development, said Israel has also taken steps to increase the flow of aid through its port of Ashdod, just north of Gaza. The move could give humanitarian agencies a new option for delivering aid after Washington confirmed it was permanently closing its temporary maritime pier off Gaza’s coast.
Negotiations aimed at reaching a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, held in Qatar and Egypt this week, reportedly made progress, and US president Joe Biden, in comments on Friday, sounded optimistic. “There is still work to do and these are complex issues, but that framework is now agreed to by both Israel and Hamas. My team is making progress and I’m determined to get this done.”
A main sticking point remains the Hamas demand on written guarantees from mediators that Israel will not resume the war after the first group of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are released. Mr Netanyahu insists that Israel will be able to resume the fighting until it achieves its war goals.
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Hamas political bureau member Izzat Al-Risheq said the conditions set by Mr Netanyahu are new and that the Israeli government’s aim is to sabotage the deal.
Senior Hamas official Husam Badran said the organisation wants an independent, technocratic government, to be agreed upon by all the Palestinian factions, to run both Gaza and the West Bank. He stressed that governing the Gaza Strip is an internal Palestinian affair, and that therefore Hamas will not agree to negotiate this issue with outside parties.
Both Israel and Egypt on Friday denied a Reuters report claiming that negotiators from the two countries are in talks about an electronic surveillance system along the border between Gaza and Egypt that would pave the way for an Israeli military withdrawal from the area as part of a ceasefire agreement.
In an effort to cope with an acute shortage of soldiers, Israel’s cabinet decided on Friday to extend mandatory military service for men from 32 to 36 months.
