Heavy bombardment rocks Gaza City after mass evacuation order

• Israeli forces launch more than 70 new air strikes, kill 32 Palestinians
• Mediators push on with efforts to halt war raging into its tenth month

AZA CITY As peace negotiators continued their efforts to end the war, which is now into its tenth month, heavy fighting and airstrikes struck Gaza City and other Palestinian areas on Friday.

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At a NATO meeting in Washington on Thursday, US President Joe Biden emphasized that “it’s time to end this war” and stated that US diplomats were working with international mediators to achieve “progress” toward a ceasefire despite obstacles.

More than 70 fresh airstrikes were reported by Israeli troops, according to media affiliated with Hamas, the group that ruled the region and whose onslaught on October 7th set off the worst Gaza battle in history.

The “martyrs, a majority of them children and women, were taken to hospitals overnight, because of continued massacres,” according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which announced 32 dead.

The Israeli military declared that it was also engaged in action in the southern Rafah region, where its forces had killed a large number of rebels through airstrikes and close-quarters fighting.

The largest city, Gaza City, has been the center of recent conflicts and widespread displacement; after two weeks of warfare, the eastern district of Shujaiya was completely destroyed. According to Gaza’s civil defense organization, scores of dead have been discovered beneath the debris in what is now a “disaster zone,” with 85% of the structures unusable.

‘Trapped’

Since Shujaiya, Israeli tanks and troops have invaded various areas of Gaza City to combat Hamas and members of Islamic Jihad, including the UN agency for Palestinians’ (UNRWA) headquarters, which has been abandoned.

On Wednesday, the army dropped hundreds of leaflets advising everyone living in Gaza City to leave the “dangerous combat zone,” where up to 350,000 people, according to the UN, were believed to be remaining.

Umm Ihab Arafat, one of the recently displaced, sat on a sand mound amidst the ruins with her kids while the constant buzzing of Israeli drones filled the sky.

“I’ve been moved four times,” she begged for some time off for herself and her kids. “They deserve to rest; there is terror and terror in their eyes.”

As stated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, “whole families are stranded and desperately need protection.” We are unable to meet the enormous demands.

According to the ICRC, residents of Gaza City have been told to relocate “to areas that are overcrowded, lacking in essential services and are experiencing hostilities” to the south.

Truce talks

To achieve the still-elusive peace and captive release agreement, Israel and Hamas have been in indirect negotiations for months through intermediaries in Qatar and Egypt.

US and Israeli officials discussed terms for peace with Qatari mediators during their most recent meeting, which took place in Doha on Wednesday.

According to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, was on his way to Cairo for negotiations.

Prominent South African judge, whose nation has taken Israel to the international court of justice over Gaza, predicted that “barely anything” will stop Israel’s invasion.

In what he described as an Israeli plan, Biden advocated for a six-week truce during which detainees would be released. Talks on a comprehensive conclusion to the war would take place in a second phase.

While acknowledging that “difficult, complex issues” still exist, Biden claimed on Thursday that “we’re making progress.”

He declared, “I’m determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now. The trend is positive.”