Following a six-day truce between Hamas and Israel – which Hezbollah also adopted at the Lebanese front – Israeli bombing has begun anew in Gaza and clashes between Israeli forces and both Hamas and Hezbollah also resumed.
Residents woke up to the sounds of aerial bombardment along the Gaza strip, accompanied with gunfire and thuds of explosions heard all over Palestinian and Lebanese areas.
In response to the attacks, the Palestinian resistance in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets to the settlements in the Gaze envelope.
Palestinians in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis camp came under intense bombardment and took to the streets, fleeing westwards while ferrying dead and injured people into hospitals. Frequent sceneries of smoke columns rising around Gaza returned, to the chagrin of most of the world, and the inaction of those complicit in the ongoing genocide.
So far, around 100 iindividuals have been killed in Gaza since the morning hours. Only three hours into the end of the ceasefire, Israeli forces had killed 32 civilians and injured dozens, most of whom are children and women according to Gazan Ministry of Health Spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra.
Al-Qudra adds that medical personnel are dealing with large numbers of injuries since the end of the ceasefire and the renewal of civilian bombing. The wounded are lying on emergency departments’ floors and in front of operating rooms as a result of the overcrowding inside hospitals.
Ongoing Negotiations
In a statement released on Friday morning, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) issued a statement condemning Israeli forces for the renewal of the clashes, and stated that the “occupation bears responsibility for the resumption of the war and the Nazi aggression on the Gaza Strip, after its refusal all night to engage with all the offers for the release of other detainees.”
The movement explained that negotiations were taking place to extend the ceasefire, exchange more prisoners, elderly people and dead bodies and hand over detainees, but Israeli leadership refused.
The statement also condemned the United States Administration, especially US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, for their support of the ongoing war crimes and the resumption of aggressions.
It ended with a renewal of the movement’s commitment to continued resistance, a praise of Al-Qassam Brigades’ strategic accomplishments and a praise of the “steadfast and resolute Palestinian people.”
An Unfair Ceasefire
It’s important to note that Israeli forces repeatedly violated ceasefire provisions, blocking the delivery of promised amounts of aid, obstructing Gazan people’s movements, in addition to purposefully firing around Gaza and killing Palestinians.
Notably, while Israel has released 240 women and children held in prisons during the six-day truce, it arrested more than 260 Palestinians during the same period.
The United Nations Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued a statement on December 1 condemning the rise in Israeli detention of Palestinians, the killing of two children in Jenin by Israeli Forces, and the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails where detainees lack access to basic needs such as food, electricity, medical treatment, family visits and legal aid.
The Office called on Israeli authorities to end their practice of administrative detention and other forms of arbitrary detention, and to charge concerned Palestinians according to law and to fairly try them “in compliance with accepted international standards”, or to promptly release them.
It is one out of many statements issued by United Nations, human rights and non-governmental organizations around the world condemning Israeli aggressions which have fallen on deaf genocidal ears, as Israeli violations continue to break international humanitarian law and kill, injure and detain civilians unpunished.