Occupation continues to target hospitals after agreeing to daily 4-hour ‘humanitarian pauses’ | Israeli ground invasion reaches coast but faces staunch resistance | ‘Post-Hamas’ plans fraught with disagreement

Over a month into the aggression on Gaza, international diplomatic efforts were able to secure from Israel a pledge to uphold a daily, four-hour “humanitarian pause,” which will not halt the fighting but will allow for the displacement of Palestinians from northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, considerable diplomatic attention at the international level continues to be placed on the fate of Gaza’s governance in a “post-Hamas” future. But in northern Gaza, where Israel launched a ground invasion last week, civilians on the ground continue to bear the brunt of Israel’s relentless bombing campaign, while resistance forces are slowing down the Israeli ground invasion’s ability to consolidate territory. 

On Wednesday, eyewitnesses and journalists in the strip told Mada Masr that the Occupation military had reached Gaza’s al-Rashid street, which runs parallel to the coastline, effectively separating the northern half of the enclave from its southern half. 

According to the sources, the Occupation military is trying, as they advance in the axes to the northeast and southeast of Gaza City, to implement a military tactic they used in their previous invasions of the strip, known as “pincers,” where their forces surround a targeted area from two or more axes, to implement a siege, cutting off supply lines, safe access and exit from the area. 

The Israeli advance has been slow, having been met with significant resistance, and is relying on the cover from air and sea bombardment, the sources tell Mada Masr. The Occupation aims to gradually install forces on the ground in order to control geographical areas before advancing.

Abu Obaida, the media spokesperson for Qassam Brigades — Hamas’ military wing, said on Wednesday that the group partially or completely destroyed 136 Israeli military vehicles, including tanks and personnel carriers in clashes in the west of Gaza City and northeast of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

On Thursday, Qassam Brigades said they had targeted an Israeli special forces unit in the north of Beit Hanoun with an anti-tank missile and ambushed another in the Sheikh Ijlin area to the south of Gaza City. Qassam Brigades said that 35 Israeli armored vehicles had been destroyed in clashes in one day. 

Beyond ground clashes, Israel’s relentless bombing and targeting of civilians continues. 

According to Reuters, Israel bombed al-Shifa Medical Complex, Gaza’s largest hospital, in the early hours of Friday, killing one person and wounding some of those sheltering in the facility amid the clashes, Palestinian officials said. Parts of the Indonesian Hospital were damaged and the Nasser Rantissi pediatric and cancer hospital in the northern half of Gaza was partially set on fire, according to Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman, Ashraf al-Qidra.

Qidra called on the United Nations and the International Committee to head to the Nasser Rantissi and Nasr Children hospitals to secure the evacuation of the injured in ambulances as they are being repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces. 

Shifa Medical Complex Director Muhammad Abu Salima told Mada Masr on Friday that the Occupation had bombed the clinic department of the hospital after it had been transformed into an emergency room to accommodate a greater number of wounded. “What happened is a war launched by the Occupation on all of Gaza’s hospitals,” Abu Salima said, stressing that Israel’s targeting of medical facilities is in direct contravention of all international humanitarian resolutions. 

“We are in a critical situation. We cannot treat the wounded because there are no beds. There is nothing,” he said. 

The bombing of the hospitals came hours after Israel pledged to uphold a daily four-hour humanitarian pause to its bombing of Gaza on Thursday. 

Israel’s pledge came after US president Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take greater steps to protect civilians in Gaza. The US reportedly pushed for a multi-day pause to allow for negotiations on the release of Israeli prisoners held by the resistance. Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said that Israeli forces will expand “humanitarian corridors” in order for civilians to move south and receive aid, effectively displacing them from northern Gaza. 

News outlets have been reporting on Qatari and Egyptian attempted negotiations for the release of 10 to 15 prisoners held by Hamas in exchange for a “humanitarian pause” of a day or two in the strip. 

The United Nations Security Council has failed to issue a ceasefire resolution since the beginning of Israeli aggression on Gaza. Last month, the US vetoed one such decision. On Thursday, Biden stated that there will be “no possibility” for a ceasefire at the moment.

On Wednesday, an Israeli military spokesperson called for Palestinians to evacuate to the south of Gaza “for safety,” publishing footage of crowds of families leaving Gaza City and the surrounding areas to the south.

In response, the Hamas-led government media office warned against circulating photos and videos offending “the image of the resilience and steadfastness of our people in Gaza,” calling the events individual and exceptional.

But while some northern area residents were forced into displacement to the south fearing for their lives amid intense shelling, targeting of bakeries and the cutting off of water, fuel and food supplies and electricity, others refused to leave their houses.

“The issue of death and life has ceased to make any difference to us. Our focus everyday has become only on how to get a meal for the day and water for our children. As for the issue of whether we die or live, the difference has ceased to exist, and we will not leave,” Youssef Moussa, a resident of Jabalia camp, told  Mada Masr.

The repercussions of water scarcity and having to drink contaminated water in Gaza will become excessively apparent in the coming days, the head of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Iyad Abu Zaher, told Mada Masr. “With the lack of clean water, doctors and mothers are left with no choice but to make milk with contaminated water to feed their children, which will have a huge effect on their future health,” he says.

Life-saving supplies across the Gaza Strip have been targeted by Israeli forces, including an aid convoy sent by the International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday, as well as water desalination plants. The Occupation continues to prevent the entry of fuel, which is required to operate desalination plants. 

According to the government media office, 70 percent of Gaza residents have been displaced from their homes, some to the southern areas, while others have taken refuge in other neighborhoods and hospitals in the south in fear of strikes.

“Nearly 900,000 citizens are in the northern regions, and they live under the threat of losing access to healthcare and other services,” the government media office statement added.

However, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau Saleh al-Arouri said that only 25 percent of northern Gaza residents were displaced to the south. 

Local sources say Israeli air and artillery strikes were particularly intense on Jabalia and Shati refugee camps on Thursday, with military vehicles penetrating the areas in the day, then retreating at night in fear of confronting the resistance factions in the dark. 

The armored vehicles entering Shati camp were accompanied by military bulldozers, which demolished the homes of citizens on the coastal side of the camp to prevent the resistance from using them, forcing out thousands of its residents, some of whom were displaced to the south of the Gaza Strip, while others moved to neighborhoods around the camp. 

And despite assurances of safe passage to the south, Israeli air force struck several houses in southern areas as well, mainly in the Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis area, as well as the southern east of Rafah city.

Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the besieged strip, at least 11,078 people have been killed, including 4,506 children, AP News cited the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza as saying. 

While the damage and death toll continue to mount on the ground in Gaza, at the international level, little effort is being expended to end Israel's aggression, which is being carried out to ostensibly "eradicate Hamas.” To the contrary, news reports have highlighted ongoing discussions about how the international community will govern Gaza, as if Hamas’s defeat is a fait accompli. 

Who will run a post-Hamas Gaza has been an ongoing discussion in diplomatic circles, according to a source quoted by Reuters saying the US, the UN and Middle East diplomats are discussing several schemes, including an interim Palestinian-led administration, that excludes Hamas politicians, or a temporary UN-supervision, among other options.

On the Israeli side, Netanyahu proposed reoccupying Gaza, saying that Israel would maintain an indefinite grip over Gaza to ensure its own security, in his first official comment on a post-Hamas Gaza Strip, during an interview with ABC News anchor David Muir on Monday. 

Playing on a similar note, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that Hamas will not hold a military or authoritative position over the Gaza Strip and will not present a threat to Israel again.

On the other hand, former Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, who affirmed that Israeli forces should take control of securing the strip, stressed the need for Palestinian authorities to rule over Gaza following military operations.

Speaking of a “durable peace and security” for the strip in the future, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that it must include “Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”

Speaking to the press from Tokyo where he was attending the G7 meetings, Blinken added that Gaza should not be reoccupied after the war nor be used as a platform for terrorism, and that “Palestinian people’s voices and aspirations” should be “at the center of post-crisis governance.”

Similarly, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby stressed on Tuesday that the US is opposed to Israeli reoccupation of Gaza after the war, in comments that were reported in Reuters. Kirby said that Israel and the US are “friends” but do not have to agree on all issues.

Earlier reports from Bloomberg spoke of a possible scenario that involves the formation of a multinational force to govern Gaza that would include US, UK and French troops. Speaking from Air Force One two weeks ago, Kirby said of post-war Gaza, “if that means some sort of international presence, then that’s something we’re talking about.”

But responses to the various schemes coming out on Wednesday from Egypt and Jordan did not seem to buy into this Hamas-less future. 

According to senior Egyptian officials quoted by Wall Street Journal, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi along with  intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, met with CIA Director William Burns and rejected a proposal for Egypt to manage security in the Gaza Strip until the Palestinian Authority can take over after Hamas’s defeat.

According to the sources, Sisi told Burns that the Egyptian government wouldn’t play a role in eliminating Hamas, as it needs the Palestinian faction to help maintain security at Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip.

Sky News Arabia quoted Egyptian sources saying that Sisi also told Burns that Egypt rejects the presence of any NATO or other foreign forces in the Gaza Strip.

On the same day, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stressed in statements quoted by the media, that Jordan rejects any discussions of the post-war administration of the Gaza Strip, “whether by Arab or non-Arab forces.”  

“Hamas is an idea, and ideas do not die. Whoever wants a different situation must meet the needs and rights of the Palestinian people,” Safadi said. 

The Jordanian foreign minister also said that Israel's initial plans to displace Palestinians had failed after being rejected “not only by Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians, but the whole world.” He warned that any attempt to displace Palesinians in the West Bank toward his country “is tantamount to a declaration of war on Jordan, which we will confront with full force.”

On Friday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a speech commemorating the 19th anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the State of Palestine and “we will bear our full responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution for all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.”

Hassan Faraj, a member of ruling party Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, told Mada Masr that Abbas’ statements do not at all mean that the Palestinian Authority is accepting responsibility for the Gaza Strip “on the back of a tank,” as he put it. “Governing the Gaza Strip is conditional on stopping the aggression immediately. It must come within the two-state solution, on the basis of international legitimate resolutions, so that whoever rules the Gaza Strip enjoys legitimacy based on elections. President Abbas is still the elected president. The priority now is to stop the aggression and stop the crimes committed against the Palestinian people.”

In response to a question about the position of the Palestinian Authority in the period that will immediately follow the war, which may be considered a transitional one before establishing a comprehensive political solution, Faraj said that accepting any role in governing Gaza in that time will only be achieved through an international pledge to reach a two-state solution.  

Faraj added that, according to this point of view, the Palestinian Liberation Organization would not exclude Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the post-war scene. On the contrary, he added, it welcomes them within the framework of the PLO itself.

Ahead of Saturday’s emergency Arab League summit in Riyadh, President Sisi received today Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. According to a statement published by the presidential spokesperson, the two heads of state discussed “the intensive efforts aimed at achieving a ceasefire, and the sustainable delivery of humanitarian aid in quantities that meet the needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza.” The two sides also affirmed their rejection of “any attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause at the expense of the Palestinian people or the countries of the region.” Egypt and Qatar also reiterated their repudiation of any attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians. 

The visit of the emir of Qatar came after a delegation from Hamas visited Egypt on Thursday for the first time since the Israeli aggression began on the Gaza Strip. The delegation, which was led by  Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, met with General Egyptian Intelligence Service chief Abbas Kamel to discuss the situation in Gaza.