Bodies trapped in Gaza City under Israeli assault as mediators push for truce

CAIRO – Residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets under an intense new Israeli assault on July 11, even as Washington pushed for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar.

Hamas militants say

a massive Israeli assault on Gaza City

this week could wreck efforts to finally end the war, just as negotiations entered the home stretch.

Home to more than a quarter of Gaza’s residents before the war, Gaza City was destroyed during the first weeks of fighting in 2023, but hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to homes in the ruins. They have now once again been ordered out by the Israeli military.

The Gaza Health Ministry said it has reports of people trapped and others killed in their houses in the Tel Al-Hawa and Sabra districts of Gaza City, and rescuers could not reach them.

The Civil Emergency Service said it estimated that at least 30 people had been killed in the Tel Al-Hawa and Rimal areas, and it could not recover bodies from the streets there.

Despite army instructions on July 10 to residents of Gaza City that they can use two “safe routes” to head south, many residents refused to heed the order. Some posted a hashtag on social media: “We are not leaving.”

“We will die, but not leave to the south. We have tolerated starvation and bombs for nine months, and we are ready to die as martyrs here,” said Mr Mohammad Ali, 30, who was reached by text message.

Mr Ali, whose family has relocated several times within the city, said they had been running short of food, water and medicine.

“The occupation bombs Gaza City as if the war was restarting. We hope there will be a ceasefire soon, but if not, then (that) is God’s will.”

Withdrawal from Shejaia

Just east of Gaza City in the Shejaia suburb, residents were returning on foot to a desolate moonscape of destroyed buildings after Israeli forces withdrew following a two-week offensive there.

The territory’s main cemetery had been bulldozed by the army. People wheeled supplies on the back of bicycles across rubble-strewn tracks, passing the remnants of burnt-out and blasted Israeli armoured vehicles.

“We have returned to Shejaia after 15 days. You can see the destruction. They spared nothing, even trees – there was a lot of greenery in this area. What is the guilt of stones and trees? And what is my guilt as a civilian?” resident Hatem Tayeh told Reuters in the ruins.

“There are bodies of civilian people. What is the guilt of the civilian? Who are you fighting?”

Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in 2023 after Hamas-led militants

stormed across the border fence into southern Israel

, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages. Since then, Israel’s assault has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians.

At the southern edge of the enclave in Rafah, near the border with Egypt where tanks have been operating in much of the city since May, residents said the army continued to blow up houses in the western and central areas, amid fighting with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other smaller factions.

Palestinian health officials said four people were killed, including a child, in an Israeli air strike in Tel Al-Sultan in western Rafah.

The Israeli military said earlier on July 11 that around five rockets fired from the Rafah area were successfully intercepted.

The negotiations in Qatar and Egypt

follow

important

concessions

last week from Hamas, which agreed that a truce could begin, and some hostages released without Israel first agreeing to end the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces opposition within his right-wing Cabinet to any deal that would halt the war until Hamas is vanquished, says a deal must

allow Israel to resume fighting

until it meets all its objectives.

Hamas said in a statement on July 11 that mediators have not yet provided the group with any updates regarding Gaza ceasefire negotiations. It also accused Israel of “stalling” to gain time and thwart the current round of talks.

“The occupation continues its policy of stalling to buy time to foil this round of negotiations, as it has done in previous rounds,” the Islamist faction said. REUTERS