- Author, Sebastian Usher
- Role, BBC News
- Reporting from Jerusalem
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Palestinians in Gaza City say they’ve skilled one of the intense Israeli bombardments since Israel launched its warfare on Hamas after the group’s unprecedented 7 October assault.
Columns of Israeli tanks are reported to be closing in on the centre of the town from a number of totally different instructions.
The Gaza Civil Emergency Service says it believes numerous folks have been killed however has to date been unable to succeed in them due to preventing in a number of districts within the east and west of Gaza City.
The Al-Ahli Baptist hospital is reported to have been evacuated, with its sufferers being taken to one of many solely medical amenities nonetheless functioning within the space – the already overcrowded Indonesian hospital.
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official has instructed the BBC that oblique negotiations between Hamas and Israel on a ceasefire and hostage launch deal are anticipated to renew in Qatar inside 48 hours.
A preliminary assembly would happen in Egypt on Monday between US, Israeli and Egyptian intelligence chiefs, the official mentioned.
Ahead of the assault in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued evacuation orders for a number of neighbourhoods within the centre, together with Tuffah, Daraj and the Old City.
But one of many areas that has come beneath essentially the most intense assault, Tel al-Hawa, was not included within the evacuation order that was posted on-line with a map by the IDF Arabic spokesperson on Sunday.
On Monday afternoon, the IDF issued a brand new order that lined Tel al-Hawa as properly as the Sabra and al-Rimal areas, to the north and west.
One resident of Gaza City, Abdel Ghani requested: “The enemy is behind us and the sea is in front of us, where shall we go?”
Others have additionally instructed the BBC that they have no idea the place to go. They say that just one route stays – to go north in direction of the port space of Gaza City.
Some fled districts after receiving an evacuation order, solely to seek out that the world they moved to was coming beneath Israeli bombardment.
In al-Rimal, a freelance cameraman working for the BBC says that he didn’t obtain any evacuation orders, however later learnt that his neighbour did.
He left the world together with his household and headed north. They at the moment are within the port space however lack primary requirements. He says he’s struggling to seek out water for his youngsters.
In a press release, the IDF confirmed that it launched what it referred to as a brand new operation in Tel al-Halwa in a single day, following what it mentioned was intelligence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad infrastructure and fighters within the space.
The army additionally mentioned that it was working on the headquarters of the UN company for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, within the space.
The IDF mentioned that at the beginning of the operation, it gave warnings to civilians – and it mentioned that it might open up a humanitarian hall for folks to go away the world.
The newest Israeli offensive in Gaza comes as hopes have been rising {that a} ceasefire deal would possibly lastly be agreed.
A senior Palestinian official accustomed to the talks has instructed the BBC that oblique negotiations between the Hamas and Israeli negotiating groups, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, will begin in Doha throughout the subsequent 48 hours.
The official additionally mentioned a preparatory assembly was as a consequence of happen in Cairo on Monday between CIA director William Burns, the top of Israel’s Mossad intelligence company, David Barnea, and the top of Egyptian Intelligence, Abbas Kamel.
The three intelligence chiefs are then all as a consequence of journey to Doha on Tuesday.
The official outlined to the BBC a number of key sticking factors from the Hamas perspective:
- Hamas desires Israeli forces to withdraw from each the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Philadelphi hall, a strip of land operating alongside the Egyptian border
- Israel has vetoed Hamas’s demand for launch from Israeli prisons of 100 senior figures from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah political factions
Hamas’s negotiating crew has already dropped its requirement for Israel to just accept a everlasting ceasefire as a precondition for any potential deal.
The official mentioned the negotiating course of could be very lengthy and complicated, however that there was a point of hope that it would work this time.
On Sunday, a press release by the workplace of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, could have considerably dampened expectations by insisting that any deal should not cease Israel from resuming preventing in Gaza till its warfare targets are met.
Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly outlined these goals as being the eradication of Hamas, each militarily and politically.