Weapons experts: US bombs were used in Israeli attack on the “security zone” in the Gaza Strip

GAZA STRIP: Israel bombed the Gaza Strip from the air, sea and land on Monday as the war in the Palestinian territory showed no signs of abating and Hamas said it was withdrawing from ceasefire talks.
AFP correspondents reported that shells rained down on the Tal Al-Hawa, Sheikh Ajlin and Al-Sabra neighborhoods in Gaza City. According to eyewitnesses, the Israeli army also shelled the Al-Mughraqa area and the northern outskirts of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Palestinian Red Crescent medics said they had recovered the bodies of five people, including three children, following Israeli air strikes in Al-Maghazi camp, also in the central Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, eyewitnesses reported Israeli attack helicopter fire east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as artillery fire and Apache helicopter attacks west of the southernmost city of Rafah.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was continuing its activities throughout the coastal area, carrying out raids in Rafah and central Gaza that killed “a number” of militants, and carrying out airstrikes across the Strip in recent days.
It was also reported that the country’s naval forces had fired on targets in the Gaza Strip.
The relentless shelling came at a time when prospects of a ceasefire and the release of the hostages in the near future were becoming increasingly slim.
Hamas announced on Sunday that it was withdrawing from the ceasefire talks.
The decision followed an Israeli attack on the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, in which 92 people were killed in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry.
Deif’s fate remains unknown. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was “no certainty” of his death, while a senior Hamas official told AFP that Deif was “fine and directly directing operations.”
Following the attack on Al-Mawasi, a second senior official of the militant group cited Israeli “massacres” and the Israeli attitude toward negotiations as reasons for the suspension of talks.
But according to the official, Haniyeh told international mediators that Hamas was “ready to resume negotiations” if the Israeli government “shows that it is serious about working out a ceasefire agreement and a prisoner exchange.”
Last week, US President Joe Biden hinted at a NATO summit that a deal could be close, saying both sides had agreed to a framework Biden set out in late May.
On Monday, Hamas attacked the United States, accusing it of supporting “genocide” by supplying Israel with “internationally banned” weapons.
“We strongly condemn the … American contempt for the blood of the children and women of our Palestinian people … by supplying all kinds of prohibited weapons to the ‘Israeli’ occupation,” said a statement from the Hamas government’s media office.
Qatar and Egypt, with US support, mediated talks between the warring parties, but months of negotiations failed to produce a breakthrough.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7. According to a count by the AFP news agency based on Israeli figures, 1,195 people were killed in the attack, most of them civilians.
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 at least 38,584 people were killed in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry.
The war and the resulting siege have devastated the Palestinian territory and destroyed large parts of the infrastructure. The majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants have had to leave their homes. There is also a serious shortage of food, medicine and other basic goods.
Several schools were among the destroyed facilities. On Sunday, Israeli forces attacked a UN-run school in the Nuseirat camp that was being used to house displaced people but was used by militants as a “hideout,” according to the military.
The civil defense in the Gaza Strip said 15 people were killed in the attack. It was the fifth attack in just over a week on a school used as accommodation by displaced Palestinians.