Israeli warplanes intensified their attacks across the Gaza strip on Thursday, January 2, and Friday, January 3, killing at least 77 people, and injuring 145 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry said that “many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them.”
The airstrikes targeted the Nuseirat refugee camp, az-Zawayda, Maghazi camp, and Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, in addition to Gaza City, and Khirbet al-Adas area, near Rafah. Over a dozen women and children were among the victims of the massacres.
Two more Palestinian journalists, identified as Hassan al-Qishawi and Omar al-Dirawi, were killed in the airstrikes in the span of 24 hours. After the death of Al-Qishawi and Al-Dirawi, the death toll of Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 202 since October 7, 2023, according to Gaza’s government media office.
New round of indirect talks between Hamas and Israel resumes in Doha
While Israeli fighter jets were committing scores of massacres across the Gaza strip, a new indirect round of ceasefire negotiations between the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Israel resumed in the Qatari capital Doha, on Friday.
Basem Naim, a senior political leader in Hamas, said at a press conference on Friday, that the new round of the talks will focus on reaching a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the return of displaced families to their homes. Naim also reiterated Hamas’s “seriousness and positivity and its endeavor to reach (a ceasefire) agreement as soon as possible”.
One day earlier, Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the continuation of the negotiations for Gaza’s ceasefire and captives-for-prisoners swap deal in Doha.
The White House national security spokesman John Kirby welcomed the move on Friday, describing it as a “good step”, adding that the Biden’s administration is doing everything it can to see whether it is possible to “broker a new ceasefire deal, again, that will get the hostages home”.
Dozens of heads of state as well as international institutions and peoples movements across the world have been calling for a permanent ceasefire deal in Gaza. Since Israel began its genocidal attacks against Gaza on October 7, 2023, more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed, though the official Ministry of Health estimate is likely much higher.
