Heavy urban combat raged in and around Gaza’s biggest cities on Thursday as the bloodiest war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas entered its third month since the October 7 attacks.
Vast areas of the besieged territory have been reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland of bombed-out or bullet-scarred buildings as the death toll has soared above 16 200, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israeli forces have tightened the noose around major urban centres in their hunt for Hamas over the surprise attack that officials say killed 1 200 in Israel, and to search for 138 remaining hostages. Israeli forces backed by air power, tanks and armoured bulldozers were fighting Hamas in Khan Yunis, the biggest city in southern Gaza, as well as in Gaza City and the nearby Jabalia district in the north.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops had closed in on the Khan Yunis house of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, 61, and vowed that, although he could flee, “it is only a matter of time until we find him”.
Air strikes also rained down on Rafah in Gaza’s far south, a city near the Egyptian border that has been turned into a vast camp for many of the 1.9 million internally displaced Palestinians.
Eight more air strikes hit Rafah overnight, an AFP correspondent said, as the health ministry reported at least 37 people killed and many more wounded.
Meanwhile, Fatah, the largest Palestinian party, has seen its popularity plunge during the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, from where the Islamists violently ousted rivals Fatah in 2007. Fatah’s chosen path of negotiations has not brought about the Palestinian state promised by the Oslo Accords of 1993, and Hamas – after choosing violence instead – has seen its popularity soar.
Fatah chief Mahmud Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority – which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – since its creation in 1994. But the PA is now weakened like never before, and Palestinian political divisions run deeper than ever since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.
The old guard in the West Bank where Fatah holds sway wants calm to prevail so talks can take place – and so they do not jeopardise the positions and advantages they enjoy under the PA. But the younger generation there says it has nothing left to lose and wants to revive the armed wing of Fatah, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
Above all, they want an end to security co-operation agreements between the PA and Israel, which they deem to be a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.
“Oslo gave us a shot of anaesthetic,” said one senior Fatah official.
“Leaders who might have influence have too many personal interests linked to the Palestinian Authority, and can’t take the risk of speaking out against its president” Abbas, the official said.
Abbas, 88, is widely unpopular in the West Bank, where the Israel-Hamas war has led to increased popular support for Hamas.
On October 17, Palestinian police used tear gas against protesters chanting “Get out!” and “The people want the fall of the president!”
According to researcher Xavier Guignard, “for the demonstrators, either because of its inaction or its security co-operation, the Authority is increasingly seen as conforming with Israeli policy”. He said there was “denunciation of the fact that Mahmud Abbas was incapable of reacting to what is happening in Gaza.”
The Palestinian president, whose mandate expired in 2009, cannot alienate the international community on which it is counting for help in reaching a settlement with Israel.
According to another Fatah official, the party “leaders are careful not to show any sign of support for Hamas for what it did” on October 7.
Fatah, by choosing negotiation rather than violence, has little to show for this policy. Israeli settlements –regarded as illegal by the UN – continue to gain ground in the West Bank, and Israeli strikes on Gaza keep the human toll mounting.
After Abbas succeeded Fatah founder Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades were sidelined. Most of its fighters had been killed in clashes or attacks, or jailed by Israel, many for life.
Marwan Barghuti, presented by Israel as leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, is the Palestinian prisoner best known across the world, and his name is most often raised in the context of a prisoner-hostage exchange.
Israel says militants still hold 138 hostages inside Gaza. Hamas seeks to exchange them for the roughly 7 800 Palestinians jailed by Israel. Barghuti is serving a life term in an Israeli prison for his role in anti-Israeli attacks.
Cape Times