Israel escalates aerial assault of southern, central Gaza past yellow line | Gaza News

Israeli forces targeted buildings in Burij and eastern Khan Yunis in central Gaza.

Israeli forces have carried out a series of airstrikes in southern and central Gaza, including in areas beyond the so-called Yellow Line, where they must retreat under the ceasefire agreement, which they have repeatedly violated, as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated.

According to Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground, some of the strikes on Thursday morning targeted buildings in the Burij camp in central Gaza and in eastern Khan Yunis.

They add to hundreds of attacks that Gaza’s civil defense says are a flagrant violation of the fragile seven-week ceasefire.

They also come as Israel’s military carried out another wave of raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank, including the areas of Qalqilya, Tubas, Hebron, Tulkrem and Nablus.

During their raid in Tubas, Israeli forces conducted field interrogations and assaulted at least 25 people who required medical treatment, according to a local Palestinian Red Crescent official quoted by Wafa news agency.

More Palestinian prisoners released

The first phase of a Gaza ceasefire moved closer to completion on Wednesday when Israel transferred the bodies of 15 Palestinian prisoners to Gaza authorities, a day after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad handed over the body of another Israeli detainee.

Palestinian armed groups have now released all surviving detainees and returned the remains of 26 of the 28 dead detainees to be transferred under the agreement.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the latest handover reflects the group’s “firm commitment to fully complete the exchange process and ongoing efforts to finalize it despite significant difficulties.”

Israel, for its part, has freed about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and returned the bodies of 345 Palestinian prisoners, many of which show signs of torture, mutilation and execution.

But the ceasefire faces major obstacles, including the presence of dozens of Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels along the Israeli-occupied Yellow Line in southern Gaza – 20 of whom Israel says it has killed in the past week.

On Wednesday, Hamas urged ceasefire brokers to pressure Israel to grant safe passage to Hamas fighters. The group accused Israel of violating the ceasefire by targeting fighters “encamped in the tunnels of Rafah”.

“We hold (Israel) fully responsible for the lives of our fighters and call on our mediators to take immediate action to pressure (Israel) to allow our sons to return home,” Hamas said in a statement.

Will the ceasefire reach the second phase?

Meanwhile, discussions are underway on how to transition to a second phase of the ceasefire, which includes deploying an armed International Stabilization Force tasked with demilitarizing Gaza, and developing an international body to temporarily govern the Strip and oversee reconstruction.

Turkish, Qatari and Egyptian mediators met in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss the second phase, Reuters reported. But big questions hang over almost every part of the plan, as well as Israel’s commitment to carrying it out.

“Up to this moment, Israel has not given up its plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza,” Mohammed Shehda, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations Middle East and North Africa programme, told Al Jazeera. “Either Gaza remains permanently in ruins as a refugee camp that is uninhabitable, uninhabitable, and which maintains conditions that are designed to destroy life there… or Hamas retaliates and Israel uses this as a pretext to resume the genocide.”