Written by Nidal Al-Mughrabi and James Mackenzie
CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Friday it had carried out air strikes on dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours, in attacks that Palestinian health authorities said killed more than 110 people in two days.
This increase in operations and casualties comes amid renewed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the 15-month-old war and return Israeli hostages before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
Israeli mediators were sent to resume talks in Doha with Qatari and Egyptian mediation, and the administration of US President Joe Biden, which is helping to mediate the talks, urged Hamas on Friday to agree to an agreement. Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement, but it was not clear how close the two sides were.
The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 40 people were killed on Friday after 71 people were killed the day before, including in Al-Mawasi, an area in central Gaza previously declared a humanitarian safe zone by Israeli authorities.
The Israeli army said that it bombed about 40 Hamas gathering points, in addition to command and control centers. It said it had taken numerous measures to reduce the risk of harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
It accused Hamas, the Islamist movement that previously controlled Gaza, of placing fighters in civilian areas, including buildings previously used as schools, where it said forces found a number of weapons. Hamas rejects accusations that it deliberately uses the civilian population to protect its fighters.
On Friday, the army asked civilians in the Bureij area in central Gaza to evacuate ahead of an operation ordered following rocket attacks from the area. She said that residents should move to the humanitarian zone for their safety.
Elsewhere, Israeli forces have been battling Hamas fighters holed up in towns around the northern end of the Strip over the past month, and have continued to find weapons depots and underground infrastructure, the IDF said.
Israel launched its attack on Gaza in response to a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in which militants stormed border communities from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage according to Israeli statistics.
Its military campaign, aimed at eliminating Hamas, has flattened large swaths of the Strip, expelling most people from their homes, and killing 45,658 Palestinians according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The harsh winter weather caused bitter suffering for hundreds of thousands who took refuge in temporary camps.
Stalled diplomacy
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a ceasefire and hostage release agreement for a year without success, and are making another effort this month before Trump's inauguration.
Ceasefire efforts have continually faltered due to fundamental disagreement over how to end the conflict. Hamas says it will not accept the agreement and release the hostages unless Israel commits to ending the war. Israel says it will not agree to stop the fighting until Hamas is eliminated.
Hamas said on Friday that it wants “a complete ceasefire and the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip” and the return of the displaced to their homes in all areas of the Strip.
US President Joe Biden has repeatedly called for a ceasefire agreement. Trump said that if an agreement to release the hostages was not reached before his inauguration, “all hell will break loose.”
The Israeli army has entered almost every part of the Gaza Strip, but is still fighting Hamas fighters who are waging a guerrilla war through the ruins of the small strip.
In the fall, the Israeli army resumed intense fighting in northern Gaza, repeatedly ordering all civilians to leave, while continuing to launch intense strikes in the south.
In late December, the single-day death toll announced by the Gaza Ministry of Health included 48 on December 28, 58 on December 22, and 77 on December 20. The toll rose by 1,124 in December, compared to 1,170 in November and 1,621 in October. According to the Ministry's numbers.
The Israeli army said that the raids it launched on Thursday targeted Hamas activists in the southern city of Khan Yunis and the Al-Mawasi camp for displaced people, which it classifies as a humanitarian area.
In response to a question about the death toll announced on Thursday, an Israeli army spokesman said that it followed international law in waging war on Gaza and that it had taken “possible precautions to mitigate the harm to civilians.”
