The Israeli army bombed the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the day after a “difficult” operation which allowed the release of four Israeli hostages in the Nousseirat refugee camp.
Four members of the same family were killed and several others injured in an airstrike that hit their home in Al-Darraj, a neighborhood in Gaza City in the north of the besieged Palestinian territory, according to medics at the Al-Ahli hospital.
In the center of the Gaza Strip, witnesses also reported helicopter fire east of the Al-Bureij camp and artillery fire in Deir al Balah. Shooting was also reported in Rafah in the south.
In the ninth month of the devastating war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the release of four hostages on Saturday reinforces the military strategy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under strong pressure abroad and domestically.
This operation constituted proof that Israel was not giving in “in the face of terrorism”, he welcomed, while negotiations for a truce in Gaza associated with the release of hostages were already at an impasse. .
The freed hostages — Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41 — were all four “kidnapped” from the site of the Nova electro music festival, during the unprecedented attack carried out on Israeli soil by Hamas on October 7, which sparked hostilities.
They were rescued by Israeli forces during “a difficult special daytime operation in Nusseirat”, in the center of the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli army.
For its part, Hamas announced on Saturday a toll of at least 210 dead and more than 400 injured in Israeli attacks on Nousseirat.
While diplomatic efforts to achieve a truce are stalling, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected in the coming days in Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan, to “promote a ceasefire proposal” presented recently by President Joe Biden, according to Washington.
