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Israeli air strikes pummeled Gaza for a fifth day, killing almost 100 Palestinians, whilst Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to proceed partaking in negotiations to finish the struggle with Hamas.
The brand new offensive, which started on Tuesday with the tried assassination of Hamas’s Gaza chief, has been authorised by Netanyahu’s far-right safety cupboard to occupy many of the enclave and power its 2.1mn civilians into a couple of tenth of the territory close to the Egypt border.
However Netanyahu has additionally solid the army operations as a part of a brand new tactic of “negotiations beneath fireplace”, which threatens Hamas with everlasting lack of territory until the militant group yields to the strain by releasing Israeli hostages with out a everlasting truce.
“Even at the moment, the negotiating crew in Doha is working to exhaust each probability of a deal — whether or not in keeping with [a US] proposal or inside the framework of ending the preventing, which would come with the discharge of all hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the demilitarisation of the strip,” Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned in an announcement on Sunday morning.
The Israeli army has killed a whole bunch of Palestinians since launching Operation Gideon’s Chariots this week, together with a minimum of 350 up to now three days, in keeping with native well being officers. By midday on Sunday, the our bodies of 96 folks have been dropped at Gaza’s few functioning hospitals, in keeping with a preliminary depend by the ministry of well being.
It has additionally blocked meals, medication and contemporary water from getting into Gaza for greater than two and a half months. A whole bunch of hundreds of Palestinians are already ravenous, a UN panel mentioned earlier this week.
Israel has but to verify whether or not its strikes on the European Hospital on Tuesday killed the meant goal Mohammad Sinwar, who took over the reins of the militant group after Israel killed his brother Yahya Sinwar, the longtime Hamas chief who orchestrated the October 7 cross-border raids.
However two Saudi information retailers on Sunday reported that Sinwar had been killed within the strike. Defence minister Israel Katz had equally briefed native officers, Israeli media reported. Sinwar’s different brother, a professor at an area college, was additionally killed in a single day, in keeping with a demise discover shared in Gaza.
Israel stepped up the depth of its air strikes earlier this week as US President Donald Trump wrapped up his Gulf tour.
Israeli officers had earlier referred to his journey as a “window of alternative” to dealer a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners that will be acceptable to Netanyahu and his far-right allies. Within the occasion, Trump negotiated the discharge of a single Israeli soldier, who can also be an American nationwide.
An estimated 20 hostages and the our bodies of as many as 38 extra are nonetheless being held by Hamas, which has refused to launch them with out a full ceasefire and the total withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Greater than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed for the reason that struggle started, most of them ladies and youngsters, in keeping with native well being officers.
Not less than 1,200 folks have been killed in Israel in Hamas’s cross-border assault on October 7 2023 and 250 taken hostage, in keeping with Israeli officers.
