GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Tuesday that an Israeli operation in and around the territory’s second city of Khan Yunis killed about 300 people since it began last week, while the army claimed it had “eliminated 150 terrorists”.

“Since the beginning of the Israeli ground invasion of the eastern part of Khan Yunis province, the civil defence and medical teams have re­cov­ered approximately 300 bodies of martyrs, many of them decomposed,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

The Israeli military launched the assault on July 22 to halt what it called rocket fire from the area, which alre­ady saw heavy fighting earlier this year.

Last week, it said troops had retrieved the bodies of five Israelis from the area.

They had been killed during the Hamas attacks of October 7 and their bodies taken back to Gaza, the military said.

Palestinians begin returning to destroyed homes; Tel Aviv’s forces bulldoze Bani Suhaila cemetery

Thousands of Palestinians retu­rned to their damaged or destroyed homes in Khan Yunis after Israeli troops ended their attack and vacated the area.

Palestinian health officials said rescue workers had so far recovered 42 bodies of Palestinians killed in the Israeli incursion into eastern Khan Yunis. Gaza’s Civil Emergency Ser­vice said search was underway with 200 people still reported missing.

After the Israeli forces left, people streamed back to their homes on foot and with donkey carts carrying their belongings. Many found their houses damaged or destroyed.

Witnesses said army forces had bulldozed the main cemetery in Bani Suhaila, the town on the eastern outskirts of Khan Yunis that was the main focus of the raid, as well as houses and roads nearby.

“I am coming back and I have faith in God. I don’t know whether we will live or die, but it is all for the sake of the homeland,” said Etimad Al-Masri, who had walked for at least five kilometers back to her home.

“Despite the suffering, we are patient and God’s willing we will have victory.” Many residents said they had been displaced from their homes several times.

“We hope there will be a ceasefire and calm. We hope that they act on a ceasefire so that we can live in security and safety,” said Walid Abu Nsaira, holding some of his belongings on his shoulder as he walked back home.

Ten months into the war, Israeli forces have largely completed their storming of nearly the entire Gaza Strip and have spent the past several weeks launching new assaults on areas where they had already claimed to have rooted out Hamas. Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, most of them previously displaced several times already.

Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire through mediators, ongoing for months, are once again faltering. On Monday, Israel and Hamas traded blame over the lack of progress.

Hamas wants a ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the conflict will stop only once Hamas is defeated. There are also disagreements over how a deal would be implemented.

Since the escalation of the war in October 2023, Israeli forces have killed more than 39,400 Palestinians in Gaza Strip, according to health authorities who say more than half of the dead are women or children. The toll includes 37 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to ministry figures. Israel, which has lost around 330 soldiers in Gaza, claims only a third of the Palestinian fatalities are fighters. More than 90,990 Palestinians have been injured in the Israeli assaults.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2024