- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Heavy shelling, smoke rises in eastern Khan Younis – Portal witness
- Netanyahu’s office says Israel is committed to achieving the war’s goals
- Blinken made no comment on the resumption of fighting before leaving Israel for Dubai
GAZA, Dec 1 (Portal) – Heavy fighting was reported in Gaza on Friday as the Israeli military resumed hostilities against Hamas after accusing the Palestinian militant group of violating a temporary ceasefire by fired into Israeli territory.
The seven-day standoff, which began on November 24 and was extended twice, had allowed dozens of hostages held in Gaza to be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and eased humanitarian access to the devastated coastal strip.
In the hour before the ceasefire was due to end at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), Israel said it had intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas or any claim of responsibility for the shooting.
Palestinian media reported Israeli air and artillery strikes across the enclave after the ceasefire expired, including in Rafah near the border with Egypt.
In Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, a Portal witness said he heard heavy shelling and saw smoke rising in the east of the city. People fled the area to camps in western Khan Younis to seek shelter, he added.
Al-Jazeera reported that several people were killed and injured in Israeli attacks and shelling.
The Israeli military confirmed that its fighter jets were attacking Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that with the resumption of fighting, Israel was determined to achieve its war goals.
Images on social media showed large, dark clouds of smoke rising above the densely built-up Jabalia camp in Gaza.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which rules Gaza, in response to the militant group’s Oct. 7 rampage in which gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage, according to Israel.
Israel responded with intensive bombing and a ground invasion. Palestinian health authorities, deemed reliable by the United Nations, say more than 15,000 Gazans have been killed.
Hostages make their way home
Qatar and Egypt had made intensive efforts to extend the ceasefire following the exchange of the latest group of eight hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday.
Israel had previously set the release of 10 hostages per day as the minimum it would accept to halt its ground attacks and bombardment.
[1/6]A view shows the damaged buildings in the northern Gaza Strip, seen from the viewpoint in Sderot, southern Israel, November 30, 2023. Portal/Alexander Ermochenko ACQUIRES LICENSE RIGHTS
Thursday’s releases brought the total number of people released during the ceasefire to 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Among those released were six women aged 21 to 40, including a dual Mexican-Israeli citizen and 21-year-old Mia Schem, who has both French and Israeli citizenship.
Photos released by the Israeli prime minister’s office showed Shem, who was captured along with others by Hamas at an outdoor music festival in southern Israel on October 7, hugging her mother and brother after they were captured at the Hatzerim military base in Israel were reunited.
The other two newly released hostages were a sibling, Belal and Aisha al-Ziadna, 18 and 17 years old, respectively, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. They are Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel and are among four members of their family who were taken hostage while milking cows on a farm.
One of Qatar’s top negotiators, career diplomat Abdullah Al Sulaiti, who helped broker the ceasefire through marathon shuttle negotiations, acknowledged in a recent Portal interview that the odds were uncertain if the guns fell silent.
“At the beginning I thought reaching an agreement would be the most difficult step,” he said in an article that detailed the behind-the-scenes efforts for the first time. “I have found that maintaining the agreement itself is just as challenging.”
ISRAEL AGREES TO PROTECTING CIVILIANS, BLINKEN SAYS
The ceasefire allowed some humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza after much of the coastal area of 2.3 million people was turned into wasteland by Israel’s onslaught.
More fuel and 56 trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrived in Gaza on Thursday, the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
But deliveries of food, water, medical supplies and fuel are falling far short of needs, aid workers say.
At an emergency meeting in Amman on Thursday, Jordan’s King Abdullah urged U.N. officials and international groups to pressure Israel to get more aid to the beleaguered enclave, delegates said.
When the ceasefire first came into effect a week ago, Israel was preparing to shift the focus of its operation to the southern Gaza Strip following its seven-week assault in the north.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his third visit to the Middle East since the start of the war in Israel on the way to Dubai, did not comment on the resumption of fighting.
On Thursday, Blinken said he told Netanyahu that Israel cannot repeat in southern Gaza the massive civilian casualties and displacement of residents it has caused in the north.
“We discussed the details of Israel’s ongoing planning and I underscored the need for the United States to ensure that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we have seen in northern Gaza are not repeated in the south,” Blinken said told reporters in Tel Aviv, adding that the Israeli government had agreed.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Mohammed Salem and Roleen Tafakji in Gaza, Humeyra Pamuk in Tel Aviv, Ari Rabinovich and Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Andrew Mills in Doha and Portal offices; writing by Cynthia Osterman and Lincoln Feast; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
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