Israeli air and artillery strikes hit Gaza

More than nine months after the start of war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants, the Gaza Strip was rocked by Israeli air and artillery fire on Monday as hopes for peace faded.

The effects of the fighting again spread to the surrounding region. Security officials said two ships were attacked off the coast of Yemen, while a war monitor reported that an Israeli attack near the Syrian-Lebanese border killed a Western-sanctioned businessman who was close to the Syrian president.

Hamas’s armed wing said militants fired a rocket at two Israeli tanks in the Tal al-Hawa district of northern Gaza city.

Tal al-Hawa and other parts of the city were hit by artillery fire, AFP correspondents reported. In central Gaza, witnesses said the Israeli army shelled the outskirts of the Nuseirat refugee camp, among other areas.

A hospital source reported three deaths in an attack on a house in the town of Deir al-Balah, also in the center of the coastal area, after Palestinian Red Crescent medics said they had recovered the bodies of five people following Israeli air strikes in the nearby Al-Maghazi camp.

In the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses reported artillery fire and helicopter attacks east of the city of Khan Yunis and west of Rafah near the Egyptian border.

– Raids –

The Israeli military said it was continuing its activities across the area, carrying out raids in Rafah and central Gaza that killed “a number” of militants, and carrying out airstrikes across the Gaza Strip in recent days.

The war began with Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.

The militants also captured 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza. According to the Israeli military, 42 of them are dead.

Israel responded with a military offensive in which, according to the Health Ministry, at least 38,664 people were killed in Hamas-controlled Gaza, also mostly civilians.

The latest figure from Monday includes 80 new deaths within 24 hours, the ministry said.

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday, citing the movement’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh, that the group was suspending its participation in indirect talks on a ceasefire in part because of Israeli “massacres of unarmed civilians.”

Hamas is “ready” to resume talks as soon as Israel shows “seriousness” in reaching an agreement, the official said.

The comment came after the Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry said at least 92 people were killed and 300 injured in an attack on Al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated “safe zone” on the coast.

The Israeli attack targeted the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, and killed a militant the Israeli military described as one of Deif’s closest associates.

– Mass relocation –

Last week, US President Joe Biden indicated at a NATO summit that a ceasefire agreement could be imminent, saying both sides had agreed to a framework that Biden set out in late May.

On Monday, Hamas attacked the United States, accusing it of supporting “genocide” by supplying weapons to Israel.

The United States provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid every year.

“We strongly condemn American contempt for the blood of the children and women of our Palestinian people,” said a statement from the Hamas government’s media office.

Qatar and Egypt mediated the talks with US support, but months of negotiations failed to produce a breakthrough.

Critics in Israel, including protesters who at times took to the streets in their tens of thousands to demand an agreement to release the hostages, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war.

Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring back all hostages from Gaza.

The war has displaced virtually the entire population of the territory. Many have sought refuge in schools. Six of these schools have been on strike since July 6.

– Death at the border –

Gaza’s Civil Defense Authority said on Monday that at least one person was killed in an Israeli attack on a school in Gaza City. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll from an attack on a UN-run school in Nuseirat on Sunday had risen to 22.

Israel claims that Hamas uses schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure for military purposes. The militants deny this.

The war has seen almost daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which claims to support Hamas.

Two people were killed in an Israeli attack on a vehicle near the Syrian-Lebanese border on Monday, including Baraa Katerji, a confidant of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

It said that Katerji, a businessman sanctioned by the United States, had funded a group linked to Hezbollah.

In another incident, a Hezbollah fighter and his sister were killed in an Israeli attack on Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, Lebanon and Hezbollah’s official national news agency reported. Israel said an airstrike hit a Hezbollah weapons depot in the area.

Two ships were attacked on Monday off the coast of Yemen, where another Iran-backed group has also attacked merchant ships in the name of its alleged support for the Palestinians, British security officials said.

Yemeni Houthi rebels later said they had attacked two tankers in the Red Sea.

Both ships continued their journey, one with “some damage,” the British agency Maritime Trade Operations said.

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