Israel resumed a military operation in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 20 people in overnight airstrikes, Reuters reported, citing Hamas-controlled health authorities and adding that Israel had agreed to lift a two-month aid blockade that had brought the enclave to the brink of starvation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel wants to take control of all of Gaza as part of a "broader ground operation" and prevent Hamas militants from looting aid shipments, a claim Hamas rejects.
Nahed Shheibar, the owner of a transport company participating in the aid delivery, appealed to everyone in Gaza not to intercept or loot the trucks.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that in Operation "Gideon's Chariots", they are seeking to destroy Hamas' military and management capabilities and return the remaining hostages, both dead and alive, who have been held captive for almost a year and seven months, as of October 7, 2023.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri blames Israel for the lack of progress in the Doha talks on the release of the hostages and claims that the IDF offensive will only further endanger their lives.
"Operation 'Gideon's Chariot' is a death sentence for the remaining Israeli detainees and continuing the operation means that Netanyahu wants to get rid of them, not return them," Zuhri said.
The IDF operation is named after the judge and warrior Gideon, who, according to the Bible, was called by God to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites.
Hamas has claimed that some of the hostages who are no longer alive were killed in Israeli airstrikes, while Israel is pointing the finger of blame at the Islamist radical group and claiming that they were killed in captivity by their captors.
After sources on both sides confirmed that there had been no progress in the latest round of talks in Doha, Netanyahu's office announced on Sunday that it would ease the blockade and allow limited aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media reports that currently the aid is on its way primarily for children, and it is nine trucks with boy food. Palestinian media reports that 50 trucks with food, including flour, oil and vegetables, will enter the enclave later on Monday. The trucks will enter the enclave through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Netanyahu confirmed that Doha had discussed a truce and hostages and an end to the war on the condition that Hamas terrorists leave Gaza and that the enclave be demilitarized. Hamas has always refused these conditions.
Meanwhile, the IDF eliminated Ahmed Sarhan, the commander of the Popular Resistance Committee, another Islamist militant group allied with Hamas. According to sources in the medical services, members of the IDF disguised as displaced persons raided the very center of Han Yunis and liquidated Sarhan.
In a separate incident, residents and medics confirmed that the IDF killed a militant leader in southern Gaza.
The war between Israel and Hamas erupted after members of Hamas, an armed group listed as a terrorist organization, invaded southern Israel on October 7 and massacred 1200 civilians, mostly young people, at a music festival and in attacks on rural communities. They also kidnapped 251 people, 59 of whom are still being held captive. Israel believes that only 24 hostages are alive.
According to Gaza health authorities, 53.000 people have died in the enclave since the start of the war. Hamas does not state how many of its fighters it lost, and how many civilians were killed.
Photo: EPA/ALAA BADARNAH
