The Israeli army liberates Gaza as pressure mounts for a cease-fire

Dozens of Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip over the weekend as Israeli and Hamas officials continued indirect ceasefire talks through mediators in Qatar.

The Israeli military said on Sunday it had hit more than 100 targets across the enclave over the weekend, including sites from which militants fired at least four projectiles into Israeli territory on Friday and Saturday. It said the strikes killed Hamas militants and that the army had taken measures to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. The claims could not be independently verified.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said in a statement on Sunday that 88 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours. The ministry’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Gaza Civil Defense, an emergency services agencysaid his crews responded to several airstrikes on family homes on Sunday in which several people were killed and injured.

Pressure has mounted on both sides to reach a ceasefire deal that would include the release of hostages held in Gaza before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office on January 20. Hamas and Israel both said they sent delegations to the government. The capital of Qatar, Doha, in the last few days to meet with mediators.

The Israeli delegation was in Doha over the weekend, according to an Israeli person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authorization to publicly discuss the secret talks. The person said the talks in Doha were progressing slowly and were aimed at reaching a limited deal that would see a temporary halt in the fighting and some Israeli hostages released in exchange for a number of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Reflecting the persistent gap between the sides, at least in their public positions, Hamas said in a statement on Friday that the current round of talks would focus on an agreement leading to a full ceasefire and details for a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Israel had not committed to ending the war, an official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, he said last week.

About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza from about 250 people taken prisoner during the Hamas-led attacks in October 2023 that incited the war. At least a third of them are presumed dead.

A one-week truce in November 2023 allowed the release of 105 hostages, but subsequent efforts to reach a ceasefire have collapsed amid gaps in demands from both sides. Each side blames the other for the failure to reach an agreement.

Israeli officials recently said they believe Hamas is rebuilding its forces in Gaza. And the group appears to be recruiting new fighters faster than Israel can eliminate them.

Security officials informed he told an Israeli parliamentary committee last week that Hamas has up to 19,000 fighters, with about 9,000 of them in organized units. Before the war, Israel he estimated that Hamas had about 25,000 fighters, although Hamas has never confirmed this figure.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he said in November that the Israeli army had killed nearly 20,000 fighters.

In all, more than 45,000 Palestinians were killed during the war, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

And as hopes for even a limited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas rise again, Palestinians and human rights organizations say the humanitarian situation in Gaza it becomes even more desperate.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Sunday that overnight Israeli airstrikes near Al-Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis caused significant damage to several hospital facilities and killed one person.

Last week, Israeli forces raided the last remaining major hospital in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan, and forced his staff and patients to evacuate. The Israeli military said Kamal Adwan was a stronghold for Hamas and was conducting “targeted operations” in the area.

The hospital had been the main provider of medical care in the northernmost strip of Gaza amid a months-long offensive by the Israeli military against what it says is a resurgent Hamas.

The World Health Organization he said that the raid on Kamal Adwan “put the last major health facility in Northern Gaza out of service” – and that patients, caregivers and health workers were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital.

But on Sunday, the Gaza health ministry said that the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza will no longer provide services to patients or the injured, leaving the northern part of the enclave. no functioning hospitals in the midst of almost constant bombardment.

Aaron Boxerman contributed to this report.