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 reportedly withdrew from parts of the Tel al-Hawa and Sanaa 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 dead bodies being carried to a nearby hospital highlighted the horrific cycle that has been sweeping Gaza for nine months.

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 emerged from the shattered concrete as workers dug into a collapsed building. Another video showed burning buildings.

Mahmoud Basal, head of civil defense in Gaza, said about 60 bodies had been found so far, including entire families apparently killed by artillery fire and airstrikes. Some of the bodies had been partially eaten by dogs, he said.

“There are houses we cannot reach, and there are people who were burned inside their homes,” he said, noting that many of the dead had left nearby shelters after being ordered to evacuate.

The director of the nearby Al-Ahli Hospital, Fadl Naeem, said that dozens of bodies found in the area had been transferred 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 offensive in the area began earlier this week after it ordered the area evacuated on Monday. In a statement on Friday, the military said its forces targeted the abandoned compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), where it said Hamas had set up operations.

UNRWA abandoned the compound in October, early in the war. The military said Friday that its forces had fought Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters in the compound and discovered materials for building drones as well as weapons caches. The military released photos of some of the materials found, though the claims could not be independently verified.

The scenes in Tel al-Hawa mirrored those in another Gaza City neighborhood, Shujaiya, from which Israeli forces also withdrew in recent days after more than two weeks of assault. Civil defense workers reported finding about 60 bodies in Shujaiya on Thursday, with more believed to be buried under the rubble.

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.

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, according to the Strip’s statistics. Ministry of HealthGaza does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its population. More than 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes, and most now live in squalid tent camps, facing widespread hunger.

Meanwhile, mediators in Cairo continue to push to narrow the gaps between Israel and Hamas over a proposed deal that would include a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that Israel will send a delegation for further talks as American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators try to reach an agreement.

But obstacles remain. Hamas insists that talks continue until a permanent ceasefire is reached, while Netanyahu says Israel will not agree to any deal that would halt its military campaign before Hamas is eliminated.

Netanyahu is facing mounting pressure at home and internationally. Large segments of the Israeli public are demanding a deal to release the hostages after nine months of war, although Netanyahu insists that the offensive will not end until Israel achieves its goal of eliminating Hamas.

Relatives of the hostages are heading to Jerusalem to demand a deal and the release of their loved ones, as Israeli politicians, including Defense Minister Yoav Galant, call 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 was killed in fighting in northern Israel, as cross-border fire continued between the country’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group and Israel have been exchanging fire almost daily, with Hezbollah saying it was striking Israel in solidarity with Hamas and would halt its attacks once a ceasefire was reached in Gaza.

President Joe Biden spoke at a news conference on Thursday of disappointment and frustration with the war and the Israeli government, noting growing hopes for a ceasefire.

Biden said Israel and Hamas had now agreed to the broad terms of a deal to stop the fighting and free the hostages, which he said made the prospects brighter. He added that mediators were helping to fill gaps in the agreement.

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Associated Press writers Sam Metz from Rabat, Morocco, and Jack Jeffrey from Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.