Jerusalem — At least 109 Palestinians were killed after Israel, ignoring international calls for a renewed truce, resumed its deadly bombardment of Gaza on Friday.
Both the United Nations chief and the White House called for the break in fighting to be restored, and UN agencies warned of a “catastrophic” humanitarian situation as bombs fell and hospitals again struggled to cope with the wounded after a week-long respite.
“We continue to work with Israel, Egypt, and Qatar on efforts to extend the humanitarian pause in Gaza,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson said, after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel following diplomatic efforts to shore up the truce.
The United States remains “intensely focused” on freeing hostages held in Gaza despite the resumption of the Israel-Hamas war after a week-long truce, Blinken said Friday.
“We remained intensely focused on getting everyone home, getting hostages back, something that I also worked on today,” he said, after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Dubai.
Blinken met with the top diplomats of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain during his brief visit to Dubai, as well as a representative of the Palestinian Authority.
“We’re determined to do everything we can to get everyone reunited with their families, including pursuing the process that had worked for seven days,” Blinken said, saying the work was continuing “almost hour by hour”.
Blinken spent the day in Dubai, which is hosting scores of world leaders for the COP28 climate conference, after a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank.
In a social media post, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “I deeply regret that military operations have started again in Gaza. I still hope that it will be possible to renew the pause that was established.”
Gaza like ‘horror movie’ –
Under the truce, Hamas released hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and greater aid flows into war-devastated Gaza.
But with explosions audible and a dark column of smoke rising over northern Gaza, Israel’s army said its warplanes were striking Hamas targets across the Palestinian territory and AFP journalists saw, and visited the aftermath, of several bombings.
Outgoing missiles fired by Palestinian groups towards Israel were also seen.
“The healthcare service is on its knees,” Rob Holden, a World Health Organisation (WHO) senior emergency officer, told journalists in Geneva on a video-link from Gaza as explosions were heard in the background. “It is like a horror movie.”
Israeli officials, however, took a tough line, insisting Hamas was to blame for the new eruption of fighting and vowing to destroy the Islamist movement.
“Unfortunately, Hamas decided to terminate the pause by failing to release all the kidnapped women,” Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy told reporters. “Having chosen to hold onto our women, Hamas will now take the mother of all thumpings.”
In the rubble of a house destroyed by bombs in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a man screamed: “Where are my children?”
In Khan Yunis, a group of men chanted “God is greatest” as they rushed through the streets carrying a body wrapped in a white shroud. War has returned, even more fiercely”, Anas Abu Dagga, 22, told AFP.
Talks ‘ongoing’
On a bed at Khan Yunis’s Nasser hospital, a member of the same family, Amal Abu Dagga wept, her beige veil covered in blood.
“I don’t even know what happened to my children,” she said. Another relative, Jamil Abu Dagga, told AFP the family had been at home when the bombs started falling.
In Israel, sirens warning of potential missiles sounded in several communities near Gaza, and authorities said they were restarting security measures in the area including closing schools.
A rocket strike destroyed a van in one Israeli community near Gaza.
Despite the resumption of fighting, talks between Qatari and Egyptian mediators were “ongoing”, said a source briefed on the talks.
During the seven-day truce, Hamas freed 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinians held in various Israeli jails, and more aid entered Gaza, where 1.7 million people are displaced and short of food, water and other essentials, according to the United Nations.
Twenty-five other hostages, mostly Thais, were also freed during the truce but outside the scope of its terms.
‘Evacuation zones’ –
On Thursday eight more Israeli hostages, some holding dual nationality, were released.
Not long after the hostages arrived in Israel, the country’s prison service said another 30 Palestinians — 23 children and seven women — had been freed.
Hamas said it had also offered to hand over the bodies of a mother and her two sons — one of them a baby — in talks to extend the now-expired truce.
Shiri Bibas, her 10-month-old son Kfir and his four-year-old brother Ariel, along with their father Yarden, have become emblematic of the October 7 attacks due to the age of baby Kfir.
The Israeli military published a map of “evacuation zones” in the Gaza Strip. The military said it would enable residents to “evacuate from specific places for their safety if required”.
Residents in multiple areas were sent SMS warnings on Friday.
Israeli forces “will begin a crushing military attack on your area of residence with the aim of eliminating the terrorist organization Hamas,” the warnings said.
“Stay away from all military activity of every kind.”
Iran warns of consequences
“The continuation of the Washington and Tel Aviv war means a new genocide in Gaza and the West Bank,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Friday in post on X, formerly Twitter.
“It appears that they do not think about the severe consequences of returning to war,” he added.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani had earlier blamed Israel and the United States over the resumption of hostilities.
In a post on X, Kanani said “the political and legal responsibility for the continuation of the aggression and massacre” rested with Israel, the United States and “governments that support this apartheid regime”.
