GAZA CITY: Israeli air strikes battered Gaza and Palestinian groups fired rockets again on Saturday, as deadly fighting resumed after a night of relative calm despite efforts to secure a truce.
A new ceasefire proposal was circulated late on Friday by Egypt, which has been mediating between the two sides, after a previous bid fell through, a Palestinian source said.
Israel’s anti-aircraft defences went into action on Saturday after a barrage of rocket fire from Gaza during the funeral of Islamic Jihad military commander Iyad al-Hassani, who was killed the previous day in an Israel strike.
The Islamic Jihad said its fighters were pursuing “missile strikes on Israeli cities” in revenge for Israeli “assassinations” of their commanders and strikes on inhabited regions.
Residents in the crowded Gaza Strip cowered indoors as the fighting raged, with streets empty and only a few shops and pharmacies open.
The exchange of fire came after the Palestinian health ministry reported the death of two men aged 19 and 32 in an Israeli army raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
The Fatah movement of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the two men killed in the raid were members of its armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
The current bout of violence erupted when Israeli strikes on Gaza killed three leading Islamic Jihad members. Three other senior figures from the Palestinian militant group were killed in later strikes.
They are among at least 33 Palestinian lives lost in the fighting, according to Gaza’s health ministry, including children.
On Saturday, sirens warning of incoming fire sounded throughout the day in Israeli communities close to the border with Gaza.
Egypt has been working on bringing an end to the fighting, the worst since an August flare-up that killed nearly 50 Palestinians.
A Palestinian source on Friday said Gaza factions were studying Cairo’s new ceasefire formula, while Israeli public television said an “improved” truce proposal had been handed to Israel.
There had been cautious optimism a truce may be nearing, but an Islamic Jihad source said Israel was “disrupting Egypt’s efforts for a ceasefire”.
Gaza has been plagued by poverty and unemployment since a blockade imposed by Israel in 2007 when the Islamist movement Hamas took over.
The territory has since been the site of numerous wars between militant groups and Israel, including the fighting in August 2022 in which 19 children were among the 49 killed, according to the United Nations. — AFP
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