GAZA: Israel intensified its air strikes on Gaza on Wednesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to increase pressure on Hamas, dashing hopes for a ceasefire plan announced by the United States.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel of deliberately undermining negotiations for a truce and hostage release deal, claiming Israel did not want to end the war. The Israeli military reported 25 strikes in the past 24 hours in Gaza.
The Gaza health ministry reported that 52 people, most of them women and children, had been killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours. Despite mounting international pressure, Netanyahu is adamant to intensify violence and military offensive in Gaza.
“This is exactly the time to increase the pressure even more and to achieve all the war objectives,” Netanyahu said in a speech to parliament. “We have got them by the throat; we are on the road to absolute victory.”
Netanyahu also recalled his decision to send Israeli ground troops into Rafah in May, which had drawn international criticism, including from the United States.
The UN humanitarian office OCHA reported that multiple strikes across Gaza on Tuesday killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians. The civil defense agency in Gaza said 30 people were killed in three strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza: one on a UN-run school, another on a house, and a third on a mosque.
In southern Gaza, two people were killed in Israeli bombardment of the Shakush area, northwest of Rafah, according to a medical source at Nasser Hospital.
The ongoing Israeli bombardment has displaced at least 90 percent of Gazans, many seeking refuge in UN-run schools. Seven of these schools have been hit by Israeli strikes since July 6. Nearly 70 percent of UN-run schools across Gaza have been struck during the more than nine months of Israeli military attacks, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
“Why do they target us when we are innocent people?” asked Umm Mohammed al-Hasanat, who is sheltering with her family at a UN-run school in Nuseirat, which was among those hit. “We do not carry weapons but are just sitting and trying to find safety for ourselves and our children.”
Despite President Joe Biden’s announcement of an Israeli ceasefire roadmap on May 31, efforts by Egyptian and Qatari mediators have failed to make progress in indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
In a telephone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Haniyeh blamed Israel for the deadlock. “We dealt positively with the proposals put to us by the mediators, but the occupation is avoiding the required outcome and does not want to reach an agreement under which it ends its war,” he said.
Haniyeh’s comments followed a senior Hamas official’s statement on Sunday that the Palestinian group was withdrawing from the current talks following Israel’s deadly strikes but was ready to return if Israel’s attitude changes.
Since October 7 last year, Israeli bombardment has killed at least 38,794 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry.
Critics in Israel, including tens of thousands of demonstrators who have taken to the streets to demand a deal to bring home the hostages, have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war. The families of five Israeli women soldiers among the hostages said on Tuesday they were “begging” the prime minister to “make the deal happen.”
