Emergency crews recover bodies in Gaza City as negotiations continue

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Civil defense workers pulled bodies from the rubble of collapsed buildings and pulled them from rubble-covered streets Friday, as they gathered dozens of Palestinians killed this week in an Israeli attack on a Gaza City neighborhood.

The discovery of the bodies came after Israeli forces announced they were withdrawing from parts of the Tel al-Hawa and Gaza Industry neighborhoods after days of shelling and fighting there. The Israeli military launched an incursion into the two areas earlier this week to combat what it said were regrouped Hamas militants.

The horrific scenes of death highlighted the horrific nine-month cycle since the war began in Gaza.

Having conquered almost every urban area in the tiny enclave since October, Israeli forces have now repeatedly invaded parts of it, while Hamas’s capabilities change and remain the same. Palestinians are forced to flee again and again to escape the shifting attacks—or stay put and die. Ceasefire negotiations are moving forward, coming close to an agreement, but never reaching one.

Videos circulating on social media showed civil defense workers wrapping bodies, including women, in blankets in the rubble-strewn streets of Tal al-Hawa and Sanaa. A hand was seen emerging from the shattered concrete as workers dug into a collapsed building. Another video showed burning buildings.

Mahmoud Basal, head of Gaza’s civil defense, said about 60 bodies had been found so far, including entire families apparently killed by artillery fire and airstrikes as they tried to flee. He said some bodies had been partially eaten by dogs, others burned inside homes and others were still under the rubble and could not be reached.

The director of the nearby Al-Ahli Hospital, Fadl Naeem, said that at least 40 bodies had been brought from the areas where they were found to the hospital, but he did not have a specific number.

The Israeli military said it could not comment on the discovery of the bodies.

The Israeli attack on the area began after Israel issued an evacuation order for the area on Monday. In a statement issued on Friday, the military said its forces targeted the abandoned headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), where it said Hamas had set up operations.

UNRWA left the compound in October, at the start of the war. The military said Friday that troops fought Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters in the compound and discovered drone-building materials and weapons caches. The military released photos of some of the materials found, though the claims could not be independently verified.

Salem al-Rayes, a resident who fled south months ago but spoke to family members still in the neighborhood, said forces had withdrawn from most of the area on Friday, but snipers and drones continued to open fire.

He said that forces set fire to several homes during the days of the attack, including that of one of his uncles, carried out widespread arrests, and took people for questioning inside the UNRWA compound. He said that at least 11 of his relatives were arrested.

Al-Rayes said that two of the detainees were released after being severely beaten, while the rest are still missing. His family is searching for other relatives who are still missing, adding that “some of them may be detained, some may have lost contact, and some may have been killed.”

The day before, civil defense workers said they found dozens of bodies in Shujaiya, another Gaza City neighborhood from which Israeli forces withdrew in recent days after a two-week offensive.

Most of the population of Gaza City and the surrounding areas in the north fled earlier in the warBut the UN estimates that about 300,000 people remain in the north. With each new attack, people often flee to other parts of the north, as Israel has so far not allowed those fleeing the south to return to the north.

The British charity Al-Khair said an airstrike targeted an aid warehouse in the Al-Mawasi area, part of an Israeli-declared “humanitarian safe zone” covering parts of southern and central Gaza. Imam Qassim Rashid Ahmed, the charity’s London director, said one of its employees, an engineer, was killed in the strike along with three staff from other aid organizations that use the warehouse.

The Israeli military said that Hussam Mansour, the member of the charity who was killed, was actually a senior Hamas operative. Israel said he used his position in the humanitarian group to raise money for Hamas.

Israel launched its campaign on Gaza after Hamas attack on October 7 Where gunmen stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people – most of them civilians – and kidnapping about 250.

Since then, Israeli ground attacks and shelling have killed more than 38,300 people in Gaza and injured more than 88,000, according to the Strip’s statistics. Ministry of HealthThe ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. More than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes, and most now live in squalid tent camps and face widespread hunger.

Meanwhile, American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo continued to press to narrow the gaps between Israel and Hamas over a proposed three-stage ceasefire agreement and a plan to release hostages in Gaza.

The US-backed proposal calls for an initial ceasefire, a limited prisoner release and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas in Gaza. At the same time, the two sides would negotiate the terms of a second phase. The second phase is supposed to lead to a full prisoner release in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

But obstacles remain.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not agree to any deal that would prevent it from resuming its military campaign until Hamas is eliminated. On Thursday, Netanyahu indicated that Israel intends to keep the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which would be inconsistent with a full withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas has dropped its demand that Israel commit in advance to a permanent cease-fire. But a Hamas political official told The Associated Press that the group still wants written assurances from mediators that negotiations will continue until a permanent cease-fire is reached.

The head of Hamas’s political bureau in Lebanon, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, said, “If this does not happen, Netanyahu can stop the negotiations and thus resume the aggression” at any time.

Abdel Hadi added that Hamas does not expect to resume its role as the sole ruling party in Gaza after the war, but wants to see a Palestinian government of technocrats.

“We don’t want to rule Gaza alone again in the next phase,” he said. Israeli officials have indicated they will demand that Hamas be excluded from talks on the second phase.

Netanyahu is facing mounting pressure at home and abroad. Relatives of the hostages are marching to Jerusalem to demand a deal and the release of their loved ones, while Israeli politicians, including Defense Minister Yoav Galant, are calling for a wide-ranging government investigation into the conduct of Israel’s leaders.

The risk of regional escalation remains. The Israeli military said Friday that one of its soldiers had been killed in northern Israel, where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel continue to exchange fire across the border.

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Associated Press reporters Abby Sewell and Sarah Eldeeb in Beirut, Sam Metz in Rabat, Morocco, and Jack Jeffrey in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.