Israel Focuses On Gaza’s South As Cease-Fire Talks Rejected

(Bloomberg) -- Israel’s military increased airstrikes on Hamas targets in southern Gaza, a widening front in the war, as each side ruled out further talks toward a renewed cease-fire. 

Israel pulled its negotiating team from Qatar, denting hopes that a seven-day cease-fire, accompanied by exchanges of hostages and prisoners, would be extended. Saleh al-Arouri, a senior Hamas official, said on Saturday there would be “no hostage exchanges until the end of the war.”

Israel said it struck 400 “terrorist targets” in Gaza, including 50 in the area of Khan Younis, the southern city where Israel believes that top Hamas leaders are now hiding. Many nations, including allies like the US, are warning Israel not to use the overwhelming force in the south as it did in the north, where it leveled much of Gaza City and thousands of Gazans were killed. 

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested a significant escalation is underway in the south as Israel seeks to destroy Hamas, the stated objective of the war. 

“We will continue the war until we achieve all its goals, and it’s impossible to achieve those goals without the ground operation,” he said in a televised news conference, according to the Associated Press.  

But combat in the south is more difficult now because of the displacement of what the United Nations says are 1.8 million Gazans, many of whom fled there on Israeli warnings to avoid intense fighting in the north.  

“As Israel defends itself, it matters how,” Vice President Kamala Harris said following a meeting with Arab leaders in Dubai on Saturday. “The United States is unequivocal international humanitarian law must be respected. Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering, and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.”

Those attacks came a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel to do all it can to protect civilian lives as he concluded his third swing through the region since early October. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday that Israel risked “strategic defeat” in its war with Hamas if it fails to heed warnings about the mounting civilian death toll. 

Read more: Austin Warns of Risk for Israel Over Civilian Deaths in Gaza

Authorities in Gaza say more than 15,200 people, mostly women and children, have been killed there since Israel started its response to the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas. 

Israel’s campaign came in response to the killing of about 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers and the abduction of 240 people in a raid across Gaza’s border by Hamas.

Hamas said hundreds of civilians have been killed and wounded since the fighting resumed, which has included strikes on buildings in the north around Gaza City. The militant group has fired more than 250 rockets from Gaza since the end of the cease-fire, an Israeli military spokesman said, according to the AP. 

Humanitarian Support

The United Nations and international aid groups have been warning of a building humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza with a lack of food, clean water and medical care. The Hamas-run border crossing authority said on Friday that no aid had been delivered since the truce ended. Aid resumed on Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, with 100 trucks crossing by early evening. 

Mark Regev, special adviser to Netanyahu, on Saturday dismissed reports that Israel’s military has been blocking aid into Gaza.

“We will facilitate the entrance into the Gaza strip of humanitarian support for the civilians of Gaza,” Regev said at a news conference in Tel Aviv. “As we move in now to crush Hamas, we will in parallel continue to to facilitate humanitarian support for people of Gaza that is part of our credo.” 

Regev said that the military has set up a number of safe zones for civilians as he accused Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist operation by the US and European Union, of using civilians as human shields. 

The Israel Defense Force has begun using a micro-zone map in Gaza to issue alerts to residents in certain areas, urging them to evacuate immediately. 

The conflict will be a “long war,” said Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the IDF for the international media, while Regev declined to directly answer a question as to whether Israel will set up a buffer zone around Gaza once the conflict is over. The special adviser said Israel will maintain overall military control for “the foreseeable future.”  

During his visit on Friday, Blinken delivered a direct warning to Israel’s war cabinet — that the devastation unleashed on northern Gaza must not be repeated. 

“I made clear that after the pause it was imperative that Israel put in place clear protections for civilians and for sustaining humanitarian assistance going forward,” Blinken said in Dubai before boarding a plane back to Washington. 

French President Emmanuel Macron joined the criticism on Saturday, saying the war between Israel and Hamas could last 10 years if Israel’s goal is a full victory over Hamas. He was speaking at the COP28 conference in Dubai, before heading to Qatar later Saturday to thank the country for its role is releasing hostages.

Read More: White House Says Israel ‘Mindful’ of Need to Protect Civilians   

--With assistance from Fares Akram and Ania Nussbaum.

(Updates with details on renewed fighting in 11th paragraph.)

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