After months of fighting, Israel withdrew its troops from the city of Khan Younis last week (file photo)
Residents reported heavy Israeli firing in central Gaza on Friday, as Iran threatened to retaliate over an attack in Syria this month that killed two Iranian generals, raising tensions in the region.
Concerns that Iran could soon launch an attack on Israel have prompted France to advise its citizens to avoid traveling to the region as ceasefire talks aimed at halting the six-month-old war drag on.
Mohammed al-Rayes, 61, told AFP he had fled overnight from Israeli “airstrikes and shelling” in Nuserat, central Gaza.
“There are fires and destruction everywhere and so many martyrs lying in the streets,” he said.
Another resident, Laila Nasser, 40, reported “shells and missiles” throughout the night.
“They will do to Nuserat what they did to Khan Younis,” said Nasser, who vowed to flee like most people in Gaza to the southernmost city of Rafah.
Israel withdrew its troops from the devastated city of Khan Younis last week after months of fighting, but officials said they were preparing to take action against Hamas operatives in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.
Authorities in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian coastal region reported dozens of new airstrikes in central Gaza on Friday.
The Hamas media office said that 25 people were taken to hospital in Deir al-Balah “due to air strikes on the houses of the Tabatibi family.”
Syrian air strikes
The Israeli military said its aircraft shot down more than 60 Hamas members in Gaza the day before.
The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,634 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the region’s health ministry. The death toll updated by the Ministry of Health on Friday showed at least 89 more deaths than the previous day.
Israel said it was beefing up air defenses and suspending combat troops’ leave after a deadly airstrike on April 1 destroyed the Iranian consulate building in Damascus, amid recent bombings in Gaza.
Iran accuses its old enemy Israel of intensifying strikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria since the Gaza war began.
The targets included fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement from Syria. The group has also frequently exchanged fire with Israel on the Lebanese border since October.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian said late Thursday that he had received calls from German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock and the British and Australian foreign ministers.
‘major attack’
The Iranian minister said in a post on …necessary”.
“Iran is not seeking to expand the scope of the war,” he added.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Iran was “threatening a major attack on Israel” and pledged “irresistible” support for Washington’s top regional ally, despite diplomatic tensions over Israel’s military behavior in Gaza.
The Pentagon said Gen. Michael Kurila, commander of U.S. Central Command, was in Israel on Thursday to discuss the situation with Defense Secretary Yoav Galante.
France warned its nationals on Friday not to travel to Iran, Israel, Lebanon or the Palestinian territories after the U.S. Embassy in Israel announced restrictions on the movement of its diplomats over security concerns.
Moscow and Berlin urged restraint.
German airline Lufthansa extended the temporary suspension of flights to and from Tehran until Saturday.
Hamas operatives seized about 250 hostages during the October attack, of which 129 remain in Gaza, 34 of whom the Israeli army said were dead.
Netanyahu’s coalition includes religious and ultra-nationalist parties and has faced pressure from anti-government protesters and relatives of the hostages demanding that the government take them home.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets.
Hundreds of people demonstrated near Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Thursday night, calling for a continuation of the war.
father’s appeal
Itzik Benzer, father of Israeli soldier Amit Benzer, said: “You, members of the cabinet, must make it clear that the fight will not stop and that the IDF and our good sons will continue to crush the enemy until complete victory is achieved. Victory.” Killed in Gaza.
Washington has stepped up pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire, increase aid flows and abandon plans to send troops to Rafah.
Israeli Defense Minister Galante said on Wednesday that Israel would “deliver substantial assistance to Gaza” using Israeli crossings, simplified inspections, the port of Ashdod and two new routes with Jordan.
However, the UN Security Council said on Thursday that “given the scale of needs in Gaza, additional measures should be taken to provide the relief needed”.
The United Nations says famine is imminent in Gaza, with much of it reduced to bombed-out wasteland.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said an assessment team visited Khan Younis and found “the extent of the damage was beyond imagination” and that three health centers were no longer functioning.
Armistice talks that started in Cairo on Sunday did not yield any breakthrough on a plan proposed by U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators, which Hamas said it was studying.
The framework plan would have halted fighting for six weeks, exchanged some 40 hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and shipped more aid.
Israel on Thursday accused Hamas of “abandoning” what government spokesman David Menser called “very reasonable proposals that were on the table.”
Bassem Naim of Hamas’s political bureau said a ceasefire was needed to find Israeli hostages held by different groups across the region and determine their fate.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
