The ceasefire in Gaza collapsed on Friday as the Israeli army resumed airstrikes and artillery fire and Hamas resumed firing rockets into Israel.
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While the Hamas government announced that an airstrike in Rafah had killed at least six Palestinians, after the first explosions, thousands of residents of the small Palestinian territory returned to hospitals and schools that had become makeshift camps for the displaced, AFP noted. Journalists arrested across the Gaza Strip.
However, during the night there were again intensive negotiations about renewing the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the small Palestinian area that came into effect on November 24th. On Friday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of “violating the agreement” and “firing rockets.”
The Israeli army sent messages to the phones of residents in some neighborhoods of Gaza City as well as villages along the border with Israel in the south, urging them to “leave immediately” as this would lead to “serious military attacks.”
AFP
On Thursday, eight Israeli hostages were released by Hamas and thirty Palestinian prisoners were released by Israel. This was part of an exchange agreement that came into force last Friday for four days and was extended every evening thereafter. This agreement guaranteed a “temporary ceasefire” in Gaza and expired at 0500 GMT.
Israeli authorities have reinstated a ban on schools opening without up-to-date accommodation.
In another sign of the still-fragile situation, Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and especially Israel, claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on Thursday in Jerusalem that killed four Israelis .
Hamas nevertheless said it was ready to extend the Gaza ceasefire after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the pause in fighting to continue just hours before it expired on Friday.
The besieged Gaza Strip experienced seven weeks of devastating Israeli bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil.
This pause, negotiated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, allowed the release of dozens of hostages held in Gaza since October 7 and three times as many Palestinians detained by Israel, as well as the entry of humanitarian aid into Palestinian territory.
On Thursday, American diplomatic chief Antony Blinken called for an extension of the ceasefire in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Ramallah – home of the Palestinian Authority – while offering the possibility of resuming fighting.
“Plans for the humanitarian protection of civilians must be implemented to minimize the deaths of innocent Palestinians,” the foreign minister added.
AFP
Hostages and prisoners
In Ofakim, southern Israel, residents gathered overnight to welcome Shani Goren, 29. “No one is as nice as her. Even in captivity, she gave her food to others, we learned this from the statements of other hostages,” said a relative, Efik Cohen.
The ceasefire enabled the release of 80 Israeli hostages, women and children, and 240 Palestinian prisoners, including women and minors. About twenty foreigners or dual nationals, mostly Thais, who worked in Israel were also released outside the scope of the agreement.
The Israeli military estimated that about 240 people were taken hostage and taken to the Gaza Strip during the October 7 attack. According to the authorities, 1,200 people were killed in this attack in Israel, most of them civilians.
Based on internal documents, The New York Times also claimed Friday that Israeli officials had received Hamas’s plan to carry out an unprecedented attack against Israel more than a year in advance, but considered that scenario unrealistic.
In retaliation for this attack, Israel promised to “destroy” Hamas, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, to shell the Palestinian territory and to launch a ground offensive on October 27 that would last until the start of the ceasefire on October 27. October lasted.
According to the Hamas government, more than 15,000 people died in Israeli attacks, including at least 6,150 children and teenagers under the age of 18.
Wash with salt water
The ceasefire agreement had made it possible to increase the arrival of humanitarian aid in Gaza, where all 2.4 million residents are suffering from food insecurity, according to the United Nations.
The need is immense in the area, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007 and has been under complete siege by Israel since October 9th.
According to the United Nations, 1.7 million residents have been displaced by the war and more than half of the homes damaged or destroyed. Several hundred thousand civilians fled the fighting-ravaged north of the small territory to seek refuge in the south.
Thousands of them took advantage of the ceasefire to return to their homes in the north, ignoring the Israeli army’s ban that it controls several sectors there.