Palestinians stroll via destruction by an Israeli bombardment within the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024.

Adel Hana/AP

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Adel Hana/AP

Palestinians stroll via destruction by an Israeli bombardment within the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024.

Adel Hana/AP

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian militants battled Israeli forces in devastated northern Gaza and launched a barrage of rockets from farther south on Tuesday in a present of drive more than 100 days into Israel’s massive air and ground campaign in opposition to the tiny coastal enclave.

The combating within the north, which was the primary goal of Israel’s offensive and the place total neighborhoods have been pulverized, confirmed how far Israel stays from attaining its targets of dismantling Hamas and returning scores of hostages captured within the Oct. 7 assault that sparked the conflict.

In different developments, France and Qatar, the Persian Gulf nation that helped mediate a previous cease-fire, mentioned late Tuesday that that they had brokered a deal between Israel and Hamas to ship medication to Israeli hostages in Gaza, in addition to extra help to Palestinians within the besieged territory.

France mentioned it had been working since October on the deal, which can present three months’ price of medicine for 45 hostages with power sicknesses, in addition to different medicines and nutritional vitamins. The medicines are anticipated to enter Gaza from Egypt on Wednesday.

It was the primary identified settlement between the warring sides since a weeklong truce in November.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s humanitarian disaster is worsening, with 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians having fled their properties and U.N. companies warning of mass hunger and illness. The battle threatens to widen after the U.S. and Israel traded strikes with Iranian-backed teams throughout the area.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’ army and governing capabilities to make sure that the Oct. 7 assault isn’t repeated. Militants stormed into Israel from Gaza that day, killing some 1,200 folks, principally civilians, and capturing round 250 folks. With robust diplomatic and army assist from the United States, Israel has resisted worldwide requires a cease-fire.

Nearly half of the hostages have been launched in the course of the truce, however greater than 100 stay in captivity. Hamas has mentioned it won’t launch any others till Israel ends the conflict.

Strikes and counterstrikes throughout the area

The longer the conflict goes on, the extra it threatens to ignite different fronts throughout the area.

Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it mentioned have been Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood close to the sprawling U.S. Consulate in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish area. Iraq and the U.S. condemned the strikes, which killed a number of civilians, and Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Iran in protest.

Iranian-backed teams in Iraq and Syria have carried out dozens of assaults on bases housing U.S. forces, and a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad killed an Iranian-backed militia chief earlier this month.

Elsewhere, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have resumed their attacks on container ships within the Red Sea following a wave of U.S.-led strikes final week. The U.S. army carried out one other strike Tuesday. Separately, it mentioned two Navy SEALS are lacking after a raid final week on a ship carrying Iranian-made missile components and weapons sure for Yemen.

Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group have exchanged hearth alongside the border practically every single day for the reason that conflict in Gaza started. The strikes and counterstrikes have grown extra extreme since an Israeli strike killed Hamas’ deputy political chief in Beirut this month, elevating fears of a repeat of the 2006 conflict.

Militants maintain combating in Gaza’s hard-hit north

In Gaza, the Israeli army mentioned its forces positioned some 100 rocket installations and 60 ready-to-use rockets within the space of Beit Lahiya, a city on the territory’s northern edge. Israeli forces killed dozens of militants in the course of the operation, the army mentioned, with out offering proof.

Mahmoud Abdel-Ghani, who lives in Beit Lahiya, mentioned Israeli airstrikes hit a number of buildings on the jap facet of the city.

Hundreds of 1000’s of individuals fled northern Gaza, together with Gaza City, following Israeli evacuation orders in October. Israel shut off water to the north within the opening days of the conflict, and hardly any help has been allowed into the world, whilst tens of 1000’s of individuals have remained there.

Residents reached by cellphone Tuesday described the heaviest combating in weeks in Gaza City.

“The bombing never stopped,” mentioned Faris Abu Abbas, who lives within the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood. “The resistance is here and didn’t leave.”

Ayoub Saad, who lives close to Shifa Hospital downtown, mentioned he heard gunfire and shelling in a single day and into Tuesday and noticed useless and wounded folks being dropped at the hospital on carts.

After weeks of heavy combating throughout northern Gaza, Israeli officers mentioned initially of the yr that they have been scaling again operations there. The focus shifted to the southern metropolis of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza relationship again to the 1948 conflict surrounding Israel’s creation.

But there too, they’ve encountered heavy resistance. The army mentioned at the very least 25 rockets have been fired into Israel on Tuesday, damaging a retailer in one of many strongest bombardments in additional than per week. Israel’s Channel 12 tv mentioned the rockets have been launched from the Bureij camp in central Gaza.

A spiraling humanitarian disaster

Gaza’s Health Ministry mentioned Tuesday that the our bodies of 158 folks killed in Israeli strikes have been dropped at hospitals up to now 24 hours, bringing the conflict’s general dying toll to 24,285. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths however says round two-thirds of these killed have been ladies and kids.

Senior U.N. officers warned Monday that Gaza faces widespread famine and illness if extra help just isn’t allowed in. While they didn’t immediately blame Israel, they mentioned help supply is hobbled by the opening of too few border crossings, a sluggish vetting course of, and persevering with combating all through the territory — all of which is basically beneath Israel’s management.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres mentioned U.N. companies and their companions “cannot effectively deliver humanitarian aid while Gaza is under such heavy, widespread and unrelenting bombardment.” At least 152 U.N. staffers have been killed in Gaza for the reason that begin of the conflict.

Israeli officers say they’ve positioned no limits on humanitarian help and have referred to as on the U.N. to offer extra staff and vehicles to speed up supply.

Israel fully sealed off Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault and solely relented beneath U.S. strain. The U.S., in addition to the U.N., have continued to push Israel to ease the circulate of help.

Israel blames the excessive civilian dying toll on Hamas as a result of it fights in dense residential areas. Israel says its forces have killed roughly 8,000 militants, with out offering proof, and that 190 of its personal troopers have been killed within the Gaza offensive.