Israel launches new Gaza City operation as negotiators meet

The Israeli military said intelligence indicated the presence of Hamas “terrorist infrastructure, operatives, weapons, and investigation and detention rooms” in areas of the city, including at the headquarters of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that aids for Palestinian refugees.

Residents and civil defense workers described chaos as tanks moved into neighborhoods where some families had only just arrived after following evacuation orders in other parts of the city.

“The extent of fear and terror cannot be described,” said Zahia Odeh, 59, who fled her house in the Tuffah neighborhood two days ago. But she said she was considering going back. “The noise of bombs is very loud,” she said, describing conditions in the house she was sheltering in with 45 other people south of Gaza City.

“Food and water are scarce. I don’t know how we can live in this situation. Every time we are told to evacuate, we don’t know where to go.”

The vast majority of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million is now displaced, many of them multiple times. Around 200,000 to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in Gaza City and the north of the enclave, where the humanitarian situation has been most acute.

“Last night was extremely difficult,” said Mahmoud Bassal, a civil defense spokesman. “Most people spent the night in the streets and on the roads, sleeping in unsuitable areas amid fear, terror and missiles.”

He said rescue workers have not been able to reach bodies trapped under the rubble. Large numbers of people were displaced a day earlier, he said, adding that Israeli operations widened on Monday, with tanks visible in the area of UNRWA headquarters.

Juliette Touma, an UNRWA spokeswoman, said she had no information on operations at the headquarters, which the agency’s staff evacuated in October. It has since been used by displaced Palestinians seeking shelter, as well as by the IDF as a base of operations, she said.

“We are in the street now as there is no place to go,” said Reem, a 38-year-old resident of the Rimal neighborhood who spoke on the condition that she not be identified by her full name for security reasons. She said she fled her with her family Monday afternoon after they received a call notifying them to move south. But as they left the area, it was already under heavy bombardment, she said.

“We had no safe streets or area to walk through,” Reem said, describing climbing walls to try to find cover from the shooting. “They were shooting anything moving,” she said.

The new evacuation zone included buildings used as temporary accommodation for those displaced following a June 27 order for people to leave eastern Gaza City, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The new operation came at a crunch moment for cease-fire talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu injected new uncertainty into the negotiations late Sunday, insisting that Israel should be able to resume fighting as part of any deal accepted by negotiators.

His statement appeared to raise the bar for what Israel would accept in a deal and further tempered any lingering expectations of an imminent peace.

Netanyahu stipulated that “any deal will allow Israel to resume fighting until all of the objectives of the war have been achieved.” A statement issued by his office suggested that the prime minister would be unwilling to fully commit to a permanent cease-fire until the complete elimination of Hamas in Gaza — something he has repeatedly described as a key aim of the war, alongside the release of the hostages and the ensuring of Israel’s security.

Netanyahu’s office also said that any deal would need to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Gaza and “maximize the number of living hostages” released by Hamas — rather than the return of all the hostages.

The statement was criticized by Netanyahu’s domestic political opponents as well as Israeli demonstrators campaigning for a hostage-release deal. On Sunday, opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned Netanyahu’s statement as “provocative messages,” while protesters in Tel Aviv accused the Israeli prime minister of stymieing peace talks with the new conditions.

“With his irresponsible statement, Netanyahu once again proved himself to be the one who obstructed [the deal],” said Einav Zangauker, a mother of one of the hostages, who suspended herself in a cage above the demonstration in Tel Aviv in protest.

The statement comes as the United States, Egypt and Qatar continue attempts to broker a cease-fire and hostage release deal. In May, President Biden outlined a three-phase plan that includes a six-week initial stage with a cease-fire and a surge in humanitarian aid, forming the basis of the current round of talks.

CIA Director William J. Burns, a key U.S. participant in past cease-fire negotiations, is returning to the Middle East this week as the Biden administration seeks to nudge the process forward, according to a Middle East government official familiar with the arrangements.

Burns will arrive in Cairo on Tuesday and travel onward to Qatar for meetings with Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian officials and intelligence counterparts on Wednesday, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations. The CIA declined to comment on Burns’s travel.

On Monday, Israeli media reported that an Israeli delegation led by intelligence chief Ronen Bar would continue negotiations in Egypt.

Last week, Israel and Hamas resumed indirect talks in Doha, Qatar, sparking muted optimism after weeks of back-and-forth. According to a person familiar with the negotiations, one of the new sticking points is the transition from the first to the second phase of the proposed framework agreement.

Here’s what else to know

Israeli forces said they struck multiple Hezbollah military targets across southern Lebanon. In a statement Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets hit a weapons storage facility and other targets on Lebanese territory and fired artillery to “remove a threat” in other parts of the country’s south.

At least 38,193 people have been killed and 87,903 injured in Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 323 soldiers have been killed since the start of its military operations in Gaza.