Fighting was triggered by Hamas' bloody raids on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.
This image taken from the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip on October 29, 2023, shows black smoke ascending from the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. The Israeli army has raised the number of troops fighting inside the Gaza Strip, a spokesman said on October 29, 2023, as the military stepped up its war on Hamas in the tiny Palestinian territory. Thousands of civilians, both Palestinians and Israelis, have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip entered southern Israel in an unprecedented attack triggering a war declared by Israel on Hamas with retaliatory bombings on Gaza.
Israeli ground troops encircled Gaza City on Friday in their war against Hamas, as top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for a trip focused on “concrete steps” to minimise Palestinian civilian casualties.
Ahead of Blinken’s arrival, Israel’s military said on Thursday it had “completed the encirclement” of the narrow Palestinian territory’s largest city — signalling a new phase in the nearly month-long conflict.
Fighting was triggered by Hamas’ bloody raids on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 9,000 people have died in Israeli bombardments, mostly women and children.
Fresh Israeli strikes rocked the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, an AFP correspondent said, and the Gaza health ministry reported at least 15 deaths in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood and seven in Jabalia refugee camp.
The Hamas government has said 195 people were killed in Israeli bombardments on Jabalia earlier this week, with hundreds more missing and wounded, figures AFP could not independently verify.
Before his departure, Blinken said he would seek to ensure that harm to Palestinian civilians is reduced, in a visible shift of tone for the United States which has promised full support and ramped-up military aid to Israel.
“We will be talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimise harm to men, women and children in Gaza,” Blinken said.
“This is something that the United States is committed to.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had already had some “very impressive successes” with troops “more than on the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing,” he said late Thursday at a base near Tel Aviv.
Israel’s military describes Gaza City as “the centre of the Hamas terror organisation”.
Although many of the city’s half-a-million residents fled south following Israel’s warning to leave the north ahead of a ground operation, those who stayed behind have endured weeks of withering aerial bombardments, dwindling supplies and daily carnage.
An Israeli army humvee vehicle moves near stationed artillery howitzers at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on November 3, 2023 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Jack Guez / AFP)
An Israeli army humvee vehicle moves near stationed artillery howitzers at a position along the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on November 3, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Outside Gaza City’s Al-Quds hospital, displaced residents seeking shelter from Israeli strikes told AFP on Thursday that civilians would not withstand the barrage much longer.
“This is not a life. We need a safe place for our kids,” said 50-year-old Hiyam Shamlakh. “Everybody is terrified, children, women and the elderly.”
But yet more carnage seems to lie ahead, as the conflict turns to urban and underground warfare — with Hamas fighting from a tunnel complex believed to span hundreds of kilometres (miles).
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, insisted Israeli soldiers would go home “in black bags”.
“Gaza will be the curse of history for Israel,” spokesman Abu Obeida said.
Israel’s allies have backed its right to self-defence, but there is growing global concern and anger at how Israel has chosen to prosecute the war.
A group of UN-mandated human rights experts warned Thursday that “time is running out to prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.
“We remain convinced that the Palestinian people are at grave risk
