Israel has resumed hostilities in Gaza, resulting in at least 21 deaths
According to the Gaza health ministry, since Israel’s army started attacking again on Friday, at least 21 Palestinians have died.
According to the most recent breakdown that Al Jazeera has access to, there have been two fatalities in the northern Gaza Strip at Beit Lahia; seven in the central Gaza Strip at Maghazi; one in the southern Gaza Strip at Khan Younis city; two in the southern Gaza Strip at Hamad town, south of Khan Younis; and nine in the southern Gaza Strip at Rafah.
Prior to the commencement of military operations, Gaza health ministry authorities said that Israeli airstrikes had killed at least nine individuals in the Gaza Strip in less than two hours.
Additionally, Israel has been requesting that inhabitants of a few Khan Younis neighborhoods vacate before an anticipated attack takes place there.
Journalist Hind Khoudary claimed that in addition to asking residents of Khan Younis to move to Rafah, Israeli forces were also targeting Rafah.
Reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Tareq Abu Azzoum of Al Jazeera claimed that Israeli forces have started a widespread air assault over the Gaza Strip in the last hour.
A residential building in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north had been entirely demolished, while several civilians had been injured in the al-Maghazi region of central Gaza. According to reports, four Palestinians were reportedly murdered near Rafah, in the south, where a house had been completely destroyed.
Israeli drones also struck a residential building near a hospital in the south.
“The sounds of Israeli explosions are currently audible in the south, an area that has been deemed safe for civilians to evacuate by the Israeli authorities,” Abu Azzoum stated.
“We have been under heavy Israeli bombardment for the last hour and a half,” he continued.
In a statement released on Friday, the Israeli army said that it has started battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip again, citing the Palestinian resistance group’s breach of the cease-fire by firing into Israeli territory.
Reporters from Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip reported that aircraft could be heard hovering overhead and that air attacks had resumed.
Additionally, there were allegations of artillery fire and Israeli air raids in Gaza City.
Witnesses reported seeing fierce combat between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighting factions in Gaza City and the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli tanks were also hitting the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in the center of the Gaza Strip.
Powerful strikes on Rafah these moments pic.twitter.com/LEoPW7EGju
— Gaza Report – اخبار غزة (@gaza_report) December 1, 2023
According to Reuters, a provisional cease-fire between Israel and Hamas expired on Friday at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), and neither party made any announcements regarding an extension.
An hour prior to the ceasefire’s expiration, Israel declared that it had intercepted a missile fired from Gaza, and media outlets connected with Hamas reported hearing explosions and gunfire in the northern part of the Palestinian territory.
Only minutes before the deadline, further sirens warning of rockets sounded in Israeli towns near Gaza, according to the Israeli military.
Hamas did not immediately respond to requests for comment or to take credit for the missiles.
The seven-day cease-fire, which started on November 24 and was twice extended, had made it possible to swap hundreds of Palestinian captives for dozens of hostages held in Gaza and to let humanitarian aid into the beleaguered enclave.
Following the exchange of the most recent batch of eight hostages and thirty Palestinian inmates on Thursday, Qatar and Egypt have been working hard to prolong the ceasefire.
⚡️Hamas published today’s footage showing the 7th handover by Hamas of Zionist prisoners in the Gaza Strip.
The handover was carried out in 2 different batches. pic.twitter.com/IRVLNeT9tI
— Arya – آریا 🇮🇷 (@AryJeay) November 30, 2023
Israel has earlier stated that it would only halt its ground attack and shelling in exchange for the release of ten captives per day.
“We’re prepared for every scenario… Before the ceasefire expired, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s advisor Mark Regev declared on CNN, “Without that, we’re going back to the combat.”
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, the organization in control of Gaza, in retaliation for the resistance group’s October 7 attack on Israeli territory in protest of Israel’s ongoing violations of Palestinian rights.
Israel launched a ground invasion and heavy bombardment in retaliation. The UN-respected Palestinian health authority report that over 15,000 Gazans have been proven deceased.
With Thursday’s releases, 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian inmates have been released overall throughout the truce.
Extending the truce may necessitate establishing additional conditions for Hamas to release Israeli men, including military, since there are fewer Israeli women and children held captive.
The militant group might then try to force the release of Palestinian men who are detained. For every Israeli captive released thus far, three Palestinian detainees have been set free.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was said to have boarded a US military plane at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv and flown out of Israel for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) shortly after Israel launched operations in Gaza
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