GAZA: Israel's military pounded central Gaza with heavy air strikes on Wednesday as US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators planned to resume talks on a truce and captives release deal.
Tensions were high in annexed east Al Quds where thousands of police were deployed to guard Israel's annual "flag march" that has sparked clashes between Jews and Arabs in previous years.
The bloodiest ever Gaza war, sparked by October 7 attack on southern Israel, raged on unabated with jets bombing targets overnight and Palestinian officials reporting yet more deaths.
Urban combat and shelling rocked Gaza's southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, the last area hit by the Israeli ground invasion launched in northern Gaza in late October.
But fighting has also flared again in central areas, where the army said "troops have started targeted operational activity in the areas of Bureij and eastern Deir al-Balah, both above and below ground".
"The activity started with a series of air strikes on targets, including compounds, weapons storage facilities and underground infrastructure," it said.
Bombardment of central Gaza killed 11 people near the Al-Maghazi camp and two near Deir al-Balah, said witnesses and Palestinian civil defence and hospital officials.
Families rushed the wounded, including children, to hospitals in the area, where reporters said civilians were once more packing their belongings on pickup trucks and onto wheelchairs to flee.
Almost eight months into the war, global outrage has spiralled over the soaring death toll and the destruction in Gaza, where UN data suggests more than half of all buildings are destroyed or damaged.
US President Joe Biden last Friday outlined what he called a three-phase Israeli plan that would halt the fighting for six weeks while captives are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and aid is stepped up.
G7 powers and Arab states have backed the proposal, although sticking points remain -- Hamas insists on a permanent truce and full Israeli withdrawal, demands that Israel has flatly rejected.
Brett McGurk, Biden's top Middle East adviser, was also headed to Qatar, according to news site Axios which quoted an administration source as talking of a "full-court press... to get a breakthrough".
Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News said an "Egyptian security delegation will meet with its Qatari and US counterparts in Doha on Wednesday to discuss the mechanism of restoring the truce talks".
Qatar said on Tuesday it had yet to see statements from either side "that give us a lot of confidence", but that Doha was "working with both sides on proposals on the table". — AFP
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