Israel continues striking Gaza as ceasefire talks continue

 

A man inspects the damage following an Israeli strike on a home in the al-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip on Dec. 19, 2024.

Israel continued to strike Gaza on Thursday as U.S. and Arab mediators worked to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, according to reports.

Medics in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed 44 Palestinians in Gaza on Thursday, including at least 13 who were killed overnight in separate airstrikes.

Medics said another airstrike killed nine people near the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, while another strike killed four people at a housing project near Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.

Later Thursday, airstrikes killed at least 15 Palestinians in two shelters for displaced families in eastern Gaza, according to medics, while a separate Israeli strike killed at least three people in a Gaza City suburb.

In some of the strikes, Israel said it was targeting Hamas command centers, without providing evidence.

Those strikes and deaths took place as mediators in Egypt and Qatar continued to work on a deal to pause the war. Mediators have succeeded in narrowing some gaps on previous sticking points, but other differences exist, Reuters reported.

In New York on Thursday, the United Nations General Assembly voted to ask the International Court of Justice for an opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by states and international groups, including the U.N.

The resolution was drafted by Norway and was adopted with 137 countries voting yes, 10 countries — including Israel and the United States — voting no, and 22 countries abstaining.

Meanwhile, a new report Thursday from New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, has accused Israel of committing genocide by intentionally depriving civilians in Gaza of an adequate water supply, likely resulting in the deaths of thousands.

FILE – Palestinian children sort through trash in Nuseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, June 20, 2024. Israel's war in Gaza has decimated the strip's sanitation system, leaving many Palestinians living in tent camps near water contaminated with sewage and growing piles of garbage.

The 179-page report published on the group’s website outlines how since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023, Israeli authorities and forces cut off and later restricted piped water to Gaza, and cut electricity and restricted fuel, rendering most of the enclave’s sanitation infrastructure useless.

Additionally, the report said Israel deliberately destroyed and damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and water repair materials, and blocked the entry of critical water supplies.

In a statement, HRW Executive Director Tirana Hassan accused Israel of deliberately depriving Palestinians of an element essential for human life for more than a year.

"This isn’t just negligence," Hassan said. "It is a calculated policy of deprivation that has led to the deaths of thousands from dehydration and disease that is nothing short of the crime against humanity of extermination, and an act of genocide."

Israel emphatically denied the charges. In a statement, Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories agency, COGAT, called HRW’s charges a "libelous claim" and "an egregious lie."

The COGAT statement said millions of liters of water flow into Gaza through three pipelines, and Israel has "facilitated hundreds of water infrastructure repairs and fixed water lines leading to Gaza on the Israeli side that were damaged by Hamas.

"We operate in accordance with international law," the COGAT statement said. "Saying otherwise is just flagrant deceit," the statement said.

A report published Thursday by Doctors Without Borders said there were clear signs of ethnic cleansing in Israel\’s offensive as Palestinians were forcibly displaced and bombed.

FILE – Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip queue for water at a makeshift tent camp in the southern town of Khan Younis, July 1, 2024.

Israel has previously denied accusations of ethnic cleansing.

Months of ceasefire talks have proven fruitless in halting the fighting triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages.

Gaza health officials say Israel’s counteroffensive has killed at least 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, while Israel says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas combatants.

Hamas has been designated as a terror group by the United States, Britain, the European Union and others.

VOA’s United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report, and some information was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

By：VOA