GAZA STRIP (AFP) – Fighting raged yesterday across Gaza, where displaced Palestinians are “exhausted” with no end in sight to war between the besieged territory’s Hamas rulers and Israel, now in its 13th week.
Smoke billowed over the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Khan Younis, the focus of recent fighting in the grinding war, which began on October 7.
Further south, the border city of Rafah near Egypt was teeming with Gazans seeking safety from Israel’s relentless bombardment in its fight against Palestinian militants.
“Enough with this war! We are totally exhausted,” said Umm Louay Abu Khater, a 49-year-old woman who had fled her home in Khan Younis, taking refuge in Rafah.
“We are constantly displaced from one place to another in cold weather,” she said. “The bombs keep falling on us day and night.”
An AFP correspondent reported continuous artillery shelling overnight in Rafah and Khan Younis.
The Israeli army kept up its campaign in the face of mounting international pushback, reporting “fierce battles” and air strikes across the narrow Palestinian territory.
In Beit Lahia in north Gaza, “two Hamas military compounds were dismantled by the troops”, a military statement yesterday said, and dozens of “extremists” were killed in Gaza City.
United Nations (UN) chief Antonio Guterres on Friday reiterated his call for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, while the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of the growing threat of the spread of infectious diseases among Gazans.
Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry said the Israeli military campaign since then has killed at least 21,507 people, mostly women and children.
As 2023 draws to a close, Ahmed al-Baz, a 33-year-old Palestinian displaced from Gaza City, said this year had been “the worst in my life”.
“It was a year of destruction and devastation,” he said in Rafah, surrounded by tents in a makeshift camp.
“We just want the war to end, and start the new year at home, with a ceasefire declared.”
International mediators – who last month brokered a one-week truce that saw more than 100 hostages released and some aid enter Gaza – continue in their efforts to secure a new pause in fighting.
United States (US) news outlet Axios and Israeli website Ynet, both citing unnamed Israeli officials, reported that Qatari mediators had told Israel that Hamas was prepared to resume talks on new hostage releases in exchange for a ceasefire.
And a Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Friday to discuss an Egyptian plan proposing renewable ceasefires, a staggered release of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and ultimately an end to the war, sources close to Hamas said.
Israel has yet to formally comment on the Cairo plan, but Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told families of hostages on Thursday that “we are in contact” with the Egyptian mediators.
An Israeli siege imposed after October 7, following years of crippling blockade, has led to dire shortages of food, safe water, fuel and medicine in Gaza, with aid convoys offering only sporadic relief.
The UN said more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have fled their homes, with many now going hungry and braving the winter rains in tents.
