Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City on Dec. 19.Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters
U.S. and Arab mediators are working round-the-clock to hammer out a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, sources close to the talks said, while in the Gaza Strip medics said Israeli strikes had killed 41 Palestinians on Thursday.
The mediators, at talks in Egypt and Qatar, are trying to forge a deal to pause the 14-month-old war in the Hamas-ruled enclave that would include a release of hostages seized from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, along with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Mediators had managed to narrow some gaps on previous sticking points but differences remained, the sources said.
In Gaza, medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed overnight in separate Israeli air strikes, including on two houses in Gaza City and a central camp.
Medics said an Israeli air strike killed nine people near Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, while another killed four others at a housing project near Beit Lahiya in the north.
Later on Thursday, air strikes killed at least 15 Palestinians in two shelters housing displaced families in eastern Gaza City’s suburb of Tuffah, medics said, bringing Thursday’s death toll to 41. There was no Israeli military comment.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants operating in command and control complexes in areas that were previously used as the Al-Karama and Sha’ban Schools in Tuffah. It said Hamas used the complexes to plan and execute attacks against its forces.
Residents of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, where the army has operated since October, said forces blew up clusters of houses overnight.
“The longer those talks last, the more destruction and death takes place in Gaza. Jabalia, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya are being wiped out, Rafah too,” said Adel, 60, a resident of Jabalia, who is now displaced in Gaza City.
A report published by Medecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) on Thursday said there were clear signs of ethnic cleansing in Israel’s offensive as Palestinians were forcibly displaced and bombed.
“The signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation – including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment – are undeniable,” the aid group’s head Christopher Lockyear said in the report.
“Palestinians have been killed in their homes and in hospital beds … People cannot find even the most basic necessities like food, clean water, medicines, and soap amid a punishing siege and blockade,” MSF said.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the MSF report but Israel has previously denied carrying out ethnic cleansing and says its campaign aims to wipe out Hamas and prevent it from regrouping.
Israel accuses the militant group of exploiting civilian infrastructure and the population as a human shield. Hamas denies this.
Sources close to the mediation efforts said Hamas had pushed for a one-package deal but Israel wanted a phased one. Talks are focused on a first-phase release of hostages, dead or alive, as well as a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel.
On Tuesday, the sides discussed the numbers and categories of those to be released, but things have yet to be finalized, said a source who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the talks.
The source said one issue was Israel’s demand to retain the right to act against any possible military threat from Gaza and the stationing of Israeli forces during phases of the deal.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday Israel will have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action after defeating Hamas.
Israel started its air and ground assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel says about 100 hostages are still being held, but it is unclear how many are alive.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.
United Nations vehicles carrying aid drive along the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 19.Ohad Zwigenberg/The Associated Press
Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination.
“This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an ‘act of genocide’ under the Genocide Convention of 1948,” Human Rights Watch said in its report.
Israel has repeatedly rejected any accusation of genocide, saying it has respected international law and has a right to defend itself after the cross-border Hamas-led attack from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, that precipitated the war.
In a statement on X, Israel’s foreign ministry wrote: “The truth is the complete opposite of HRW’s lies,” adding that Israel had enabled a continuous flow of water and aid into Gaza.
Although the report described the deprivation of water as an act of genocide, it noted that proving the crime of genocide against Israeli officials would also require establishing their intent. It cited statements by some senior Israeli officials which it said suggested they “wish to destroy Palestinians” which means the deprivation of water “may amount to the crime of genocide.”
“What we have found is that the Israeli government is intentionally killing Palestinians in Gaza by denying them the water that they need to survive,” Lama Fakih, Human Rights Watch Middle East director told a press conference.
In its response, Israel said it had ensured water infrastructure remained operational. It said international partners had sent water tankers through Israeli crossings, including last week, and Israel had facilitated the entry of more than 1.2 million tons of humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
The military said 2,500 trucks, carrying more than 51,000 tons of water, had gone into Gaza since the start of the war and it had established three water pipelines and facilitated two additional pipelines supplied by the United Arab Emirates.
In addition, a desalination plant with a capacity of 20,000 cubic metres of water a day in the southern city of Khan Yunis was in operation, an Israeli security source said.
Human Rights Watch is the second major rights group in a month to use the word genocide to describe the actions of Israel in Gaza, after Amnesty International issued a report that concluded Israel was committing genocide.
Both reports came just weeks after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. They deny the allegations.
The 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, defines the crime of genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Human Rights Watch said Israel stopped water being piped into Gaza and cut off electricity and restricted fuel meaning Gaza’s own water and sanitation facilities could not be used.
Palestinians in Gaza had access to only a few litres of water a day in many areas, far below the 15-liter-threshold for survival, the group said.
Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border 14 months ago, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.