Israel intensifies Gaza strikes, Hamas fires rockets amid truce talks
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Follow topic:
CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM – Fighting in the Gaza Strip escalated on Dec 21 with some of the most intense Israeli bombardment of the war as Hamas demonstrated its ability to fire rockets at Tel Aviv.
Washington meanwhile said “very serious discussions” were taking place on a new truce.
Israeli bombing was at its most intense over the northern part of the Gaza Strip, where orange flashes of explosions and black smoke could be seen as morning broke from across the fence in Israel.
Planes roared overhead and the booms of air strikes thundered every few seconds, punctuated by rattling gunfire.
In Israel’s commercial capital of Tel Aviv, sirens wailed and rockets exploded overhead, intercepted by Israeli defences. Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said there were several impact points but no initial word on casualties.
The armed wing of Hamas said it had fired the salvo in response to Israeli killing of civilians.
But with the group’s leader in Cairo for truce talks, the attack seemed clearly timed to send a diplomatic message that 10 weeks of war that have laid waste to much of Gaza had failed to destroy the militants’ strike capability.
Residents in Jabalia in the north of the Strip said the area was completely cut off, with Israeli snipers firing on anyone trying to escape.
“It was one of the worst nights in terms of the occupation bombings. Also, we could hear heavy fighting despite that,” said a Jabalia resident who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.
With Gaza’s communication links shut down for a second day, the resident spoke to Reuters by phone using an electronic SIM card to access the Israeli mobile network across the fence.
Gazans say such cuts to communication links have typically heralded Israeli assaults.
In a social media post, the Palestine Red Crescent said ambulances were unable to reach large numbers of casualties inside Jabalia.
“We have received several appeals regarding continuous shelling on Al-Banna Street, Nazzala in Jabalia, northern Gaza with dozens of martyrs and wounded individuals besieged there. Unfortunately, neither the emergency teams nor the rescue teams have been able to reach them,” it said.
The World Health Organisation said on Dec 21 that the last hospital in the northern half of the Strip had effectively ceased functioning
Talks serious, sides publicly far apart
The intensification of fighting comes even as diplomatic efforts have been ramped up in the final weeks of the year to stave off a humanitarian catastrophe.
The opposing sides are discussing a new truce to release some of the more than 100 hostages still held by militants who attacked Israeli towns on Oct 7.
At the same time, the United Nations Security Council is working on a new plan to ramp up aid.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was in Egypt for a second day on Dec 21
The talks appear to be the most serious since a week-long ceasefire collapsed at the start of December
Israel says it will negotiate only on a temporary pause in fighting to free hostages; Hamas says it is interested only in negotiations that will lead to a permanent end to fighting.
“These are very serious discussions and negotiations, and we hope that they lead somewhere,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One on Dec 20.
United States President Joe Biden said: “We’re pushing.”
Hamas said in a statement that the Palestinian factions had taken a united position that there should be “no talk about prisoners or exchange deals except after a full cessation of aggression”.
Earlier, Mr Taher Al-Nono, Mr Haniyeh’s media adviser, told Reuters: “We cannot talk about negotiations while Israel continues its aggression. Discussing any proposal related to prisoners must occur after the cessation of aggression.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen confirmed that negotiations on a hostage release were ongoing but declined to provide details. He repeated Israel’s position that the war would not end while Hamas controls Gaza, and said there was “no talk of reducing the intensity, at least not in the coming weeks”.
On Dec 20, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: “Whoever thinks we will stop is detached from reality... All Hamas terrorists, from the first to the last, are dead men walking.”
Washington, Israel’s closest ally, has told it in recent days to scale down its ground offensive soon, after Mr Biden said “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza was eroding global sympathy
Strike kills border crossing commander
Hamas officials said an Israeli air strike at the gates of the Rafah crossing to Egypt on the morning of Dec 21 had killed four people, including Mr Bassam Ghaben, director of the Gaza side of the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.
Israel’s military indicated it was not involved, saying it was not familiar with the incident.
Israel allowed Kerem Shalom to open this week, increasing aid volumes, though UN agencies say it remains a trickle compared with the vast needs.
Israel launched its campaign in the Gaza Strip with the aim of annihilating Hamas, whose fighters attacked Israel on Oct 7
Since then, the Israeli offensive has killed nearly 20,000 people in the enclave, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Several thousand more bodies are believed to be trapped under rubble. Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes.
The UN Security Council was due to vote on Dec 21 on a resolution to boost aid after a delay at the request of the US. The draft would give the UN a wider role overseeing aid shipments, seen as diluting Israel’s control.
Washington has twice shielded its ally by vetoing resolutions demanding a ceasefire
‘Summarily killed’
The UN Human Rights Office said it had received reports that Israeli troops “summarily killed” at least 11 unarmed Palestinians in a possible war crime in Gaza.
The office in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the killings were alleged to have been carried out in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City this week.
It said on Dec 20 it had received “disturbing information alleging that Israeli Defence Forces (the Israeli army) summarily killed at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men”.
The incident “raises alarm about the possible commission of a war crime”, the UN office said, adding that the men were killed in front of their family members.
The report said troops also ordered women and children into a room “and either shot at them or threw a grenade into the room, reportedly seriously injuring some of them, including an infant and a child”.
An Israeli official rejected the claims as “nothing but blood libel”.
Spillover
In a serious spillover from the war, Yemen’s Houthi forces have been firing missiles and drones at commercial shipping in the Red Sea to underline support from Iran’s Arab militia proxies for the Palestinians against Israel.
The US this week set up a multinational force to ward off the attacks.
On Dec 20, the Houthis’ leader warned they would strike US warships
Israel’s Eilat Port has meanwhile seen an 85 per cent drop in activity since the Houthis began their attacks, the port’s chief executive said on Dec 21.
Eilat, which primarily handles car imports and potash exports coming from the Dead Sea, pales in size compared with Israel’s Mediterranean ports in Haifa and Ashdod, which handle most of the country’s trade.
But Eilat, which sits adjacent to Jordan’s only coastal access point at Aqaba, offers Israel a gateway to the East without the need to navigate the Suez Canal. REUTERS
