SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Ibrahim Hazboun and Samy Magdy
Jerusalem: Israel says it has launched a major military operation in the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a negotiating team to remain in Qatar for indirect talks with the militant group.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Operation Gideon Chariots was being led with “great force”. Netanyahu had vowed to escalate pressure with the aim of destroying the militant group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades.
A Palestinian youth injured in an Israeli airstrike is brought to Al-Aqsa Hospital.Credit: AP
The military operation in the Palestinian territory came a day after US President Donald Trump concluded his Middle East trip without a visit to Israel. There had been hope that his visit could increase the chances of a ceasefire deal or the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Israel has prevented for more than two months.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu was in constant contact throughout the day with the negotiating team in Doha, Qatar, and US envoy Steve Witkoff, and instructed the team to remain there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to discuss the sensitive negotiations with the media.
Hamas, which released an Israeli-American hostage as a goodwill gesture before Trump’s trip, insists on a deal that ends the war and leads to the withdrawal of Israeli forces – something Israel says that it won’t agree to.
Israel’s army said on social media it would not stop until the hostages were returned and the militant group was dismantled. Israel believes as many as 23 hostages in Gaza are still alive, although Israeli authorities have expressed concern for the status of three of them.
More than 150 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It said more than 3000 had been killed since the collapse of the January ceasefire in March.
On Saturday afternoon, an Israeli strike killed at least four children in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to al-Awda Hospital, which received the bodies. Seven others were wounded in the strike, which hit a house. A later strike in Jabaliya killed four, the hospital said.
“This is unacceptable. Until when? Until we all die?” asked a sweating Naji Awaisa as he and others fled Jabaliya with their belongings down streets lined with shattered buildings. Smoke from airstrikes rose in the distance.
Airstrikes around Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed 14 people, with the bodies arriving at al-Aqsa hospital. One strike on a house killed eight people, including parents and four children.
A strike hit outside a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, killing four, the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strikes. A separate statement said the military had killed dozens of fighters while dismantling an “underground route” in northern Gaza.
Hundreds of protesters rallied on Saturday night in Tel Aviv, some holding photos of Palestinian children killed in Gaza, with others demanding a deal to end the war and bring all hostages home.
“Let me be crystal clear. All of Israeli society – left, right, secular, religious – stands united in calling for a hostage deal. To miss this moment for a deal would be a betrayal of history, a stain that will never fade,” Dalia Kushnir-Horn, sister-in-law of hostage Eitan Horn, told the crowd.
Protesters hold pictures of Palestinian children killed during Israel’s military operation in a protest demanding the end of the war in Tel Aviv, Israel on Saturday.Credit: AP
Month three of Israel’s blockade
Gaza is in the third month of an Israeli blockade with no food, water, fuel or other goods entering the territory of more than 2 million people. Food security experts say Gaza will be in famine if the blockade isn’t lifted.
Earlier this week, a new humanitarian organisation with US backing to take over aid delivery said that it expected to begin operations by the end of the month, after what it described as key agreements with Israeli officials. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation identified several US military veterans, former humanitarian co-ordinators and security contractors to lead the effort.
But many in the humanitarian community, including the United Nations, said that they would not participate because the system did not align with humanitarian principles and would not be able to meet the needs of Palestinians in Gaza.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Friday that there was already an aid delivery plan with 160,000 pallets of supplies ready to move: “It is ready to be activated – today – if we are simply allowed to do our jobs.”
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
