Israel pounds Gaza City outskirts as military push quickens

JERUSALEM/CAIRO – Israel’s military stepped up armed operations around Gaza City on Aug 29, ending temporary pauses there that had allowed for aid deliveries, as it announced the recovery of the body of a hostage Ilan Weiss, who was killed by Hamas in October 2023.

Israel is pushing ahead with

a plan to take full control

of the whole Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City, with the goal of destroying Hamas after nearly 23 months of war, while facing a global outcry over

starvation in the besieged enclave.

“The local tactical pause in military activity will not apply to the area of Gaza City, which constitutes a dangerous combat zone,” the Israeli military said. 

The assault on Gaza City

has gradually intensified over the past week as Israel has urged civilians to leave for the south of the Palestinian enclave. 

The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said the military was operating with great intensity on the outskirts of Gaza City and would “deepen our strikes” as it pressed its assault.     

Israel announced daily 10-hour tactical pauses in fighting across the enclave and new aid corridors in late July, after months of severely restricted humanitarian deliveries as images of emaciated children drew international criticism. 

Last week, the global hunger monitor that works with the United Nations and major aid agencies said it had

determined there was famine in Gaza.

Israel has rejected that determination. 

Five people, including two children, died from malnutrition and starvation in Gaza over the previous 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Aug 29. This brought the total number of deaths from such cases to 322 since the start of the war, the vast majority of which were in the last few weeks. 

Israeli fire across the besieged Palestinian enclave killed 48 people on Aug 29, local health authorities said. 

Reuters video showed a line of bodies in white bags lying outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City early on Aug 29 as relatives sat crying nearby. One man cradled a much smaller body, one hand held across his face. 

“What is the reason? Why did they strike them? Let them tell us, what did they do while they were sleeping? What did a three-year-old child do?” said Ms Manal Sahweil, a relative of people killed in an airstrike.

Israel’s military said it had killed Muhammad Abd al-Aziz Abu Zubaida, describing him as Gaza’s most senior ISIS operative. ISIS-affiliated groups have not been major actors in Gaza for years since Hamas mostly uprooted them.

Israeli forces recovered the body of Weiss as well as the remains of a second individual whose identity had yet to be cleared for publication, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. 

An Israeli military official said Weiss was killed on Oct 7, 2023, the day

a Hamas-led attack on Israeli communities

that triggered the current conflict. Gunmen stormed border defences that day, killing around 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies and seizing about 250 hostages. 

Weiss, in his mid-fifties, was a member of an emergency response team in a kibbutz attacked by the fighters, and was taken from his home by Hamas fighters. His death was determined on Dec 3, 2023, the official said.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has

killed more than 63,000 people

in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials.

In Washington, the US State Department said it would

deny or revoke visas

of members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. It accused them of undermining the prospects for peace.

The PA and PLO are recognised internationally as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people, and exercise limited self rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank under agreements with Israel. REUTERS