Israel resumed its aerial and artillery strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza after the end of truce at 7 am local time on Friday, December 1. According to reports, the Israeli Air Force bombed several residential buildings all across Gaza early on Friday morning.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 100 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel resumed bombings. At least nine civilians were killed when an Israeli strike destroyed a residential building in Rafah. Seven people were killed in one such attack in central Gaza. More civilians were wounded.
According to the Quds News Network, yet another Palestinian journalist, Abdullah Darwish, was killed in an Israeli attack on Friday. Israeli bombings in Gaza killed 70 Palestinian journalists in the first 48 days of the war.
More than 15,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians including over 6,000 children and women have been killed in the Israeli offensive on Gaza since October 7. Israel’s indiscriminate bombings and ground offensive injured over 36,000 Palestinians with close to 7,000 still missing. Israel has destroyed 26 of 35 hospitals in Gaza.
The truce which was implemented first for four days lasted for a total of seven days with two extensions of two days and one day.
30 more Palestinians were released by Israel from its prisons on Thursday in exchange for 10 Israeli hostages.
Earlier on Thursday, Qatar and Egypt had claimed that they were looking for at least two more days of truce extension. However, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who was in Tel Aviv on Thursday, had confirmed that Israel wanted to resume the war in Gaza despite talks for the truce extension going on in Doha under Qatari, Egyptian, and US mediation.
Blinken’s statement came before Israelis claimed they had resumed the strikes in Gaza.
“Israel used truce to reposition forces”
Palestinian resistance group Hamas’ leader Osama Hamdan claimed that Israel “was keen to resume the war” and had used the truce as “a chance to reposition its forces to kill as many civilians as possible,” Quds News Network reported.
Palestinians also claimed that Israeli planes dropped flyers in Khan Younis in southern Gaza asking them to evacuate.
Israeli forces also published a map of northern Gaza on Friday dividing it into hundreds of small zones. It was reported that the IDF intends to use the map to order evacuation of civilians during their ground offensive.
The US expressed its support to Israel resuming offensives in Gaza. “We continue to believe that Israel has a right and responsibility to go after Hamas. ..as they make that decision (to resume the war in Gaza) they’ll continue to find support from the United States in terms of the tools and and capabilities, the weapon systems that they need as well as the advise and the perspectives that we can offer in terms of urban warfare,” John Kirby, White House spokesperson, told the press on Thursday.
Reports indicated the talks in Qatar were still going on Friday to resume the truce.
This piece was updated to reflect the death toll over over 100 as of Friday morning EST.
