Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that Israel aims to “empty” the Gaza Strip of Palestinians, especially in the northern part where it launched a sweeping assault this month.
“It has been a full year since the greatest catastrophe that the Palestinian people experienced after the Nakba of 1948, which is the Israeli war in which crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing are being committed in the Gaza Strip,” Abbas said in a speech to members of the BRICS group.
“This is part of a plan to empty the territory of its people, especially now in northern Gaza where the occupation forces are resorting to starving the population there,” Abbas added.
Meanwhile, rescuers in central Gaza said an Israeli strike on Thursday killed at least 17 people at a school-turned-shelter, where the Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas fighters. Since October 7, 2023, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 42,847 people in Gaza.
Al-Shuhada school in Nuseirat refugee camp, where Hamas authorities said displaced Palestinians had sought refuge, was the latest target in a series of attacks on similar facilities across the Gaza Strip in recent months.
Israeli forces have repeatedly struck schools-turned-shelters across Gaza, with the military maintaining that it has targeted fighters.
On Thursday, the United States and Qatar announced a resumption of negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said mediators were exploring new options after months of failing to seal a US-led plan.
With less than two weeks before US elections, Blinken is paying his 11th trip to the region since the October 7, 2023 Hamas resistance campaign on Israel, which last week killed the group's leader Yahya Sinwar.
"We talked about options to capitalize on this moment and next steps to move the process forward," Blinken said, after talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.
On Thursday, Gaza's civil defence agency said over 770 people have been killed in the north of the territory since Israel launched an assault aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping there.
With Israel under pressure to end its wars with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the United States said negotiators will meet in the coming days on reaching a truce in the Palestinian territory.
After nearly a year of war in Gaza sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 campaign, Israel expanded its focus to Lebanon last month, vowing to secure its northern border from Hezbollah attacks.
It has meanwhile kept up the pressure on Hamas, launching an operation earlier this month in the north of Gaza where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped.
