By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israel’s military pushed deeper towards the most populated areas of Gaza City on Tuesday, a painful reminder for Gazans that Western powers’ recognition of a Palestinian state does not mean an end to the horrors of war as tanks approach.
Israel pressed on with its Gaza offensive a day after dozens of world leaders gathered at the United Nations to embrace a Palestinian state, a landmark diplomatic shift after nearly two years of war that faces fierce resistance from Israel and its close ally the United States.
Israel says the moves will undermine the prospects of a peaceful ending to the war in the Palestinian enclave, much of it devastated by Israeli air strikes and a humanitarian crisis including widespread hunger.
Local health authorities said Israeli fire on Tuesday killed at least 22 people across the Gaza Strip, 18 of them in Gaza City, and the Gaza health ministry said hospitals in the enclave would run out of fuel in the coming few days, endangering lives.
EXPLOSIONS DESTROY HOMES AND ROADS IN GAZA
“We are not steadfast, we are helpless. We don’t have money to leave to the south and we don’t have guarantees if we do the Israelis will not bomb us, so we are staying,” Huda, a mother of two from Gaza City, told Reuters via a chat app.
“The children tremble all the time from the sounds of explosions, we do too, they are wiping out a city that is thousands of years old and the world is celebrating a symbolic recognition of a state that won’t stop our killing.”
Israeli forces detonated explosive-laden vehicles in the suburbs of Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa as tanks made a big push towards the western side of Gaza City. Residents said the explosions destroyed dozens of homes and roads.
President Emmanuel Macron announced that France recognised Palestinian statehood at a meeting he convened with Saudi Arabia on Monday – a milestone that appeared unlikely to change much on the ground. Israel has said such moves will undermine prospects for a peaceful end to the conflict.
Israel’s ambassador to France, Joshua L Zarka, said in an interview with Reuters that France’s move to recognise a Palestinian state was perceived in Israel as a hostile decision and that trust would need to be rebuilt between Macron and the Israeli government.
TWO-STATE SOLUTION
The two-state solution was the bedrock of the U.S.-backed peace process ushered in by the 1993 Oslo Accords, but the process has all but died.
The Israeli government has declared there will be no Palestinian state as it fights the militant group Hamas in Gaza following its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel has drawn global condemnation over its military conduct in Gaza, where more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health authorities.
Despite this, Israel has begun a ground assault on Gaza City with few prospects for a ceasefire, and wants Hamas to hand over the last hostages it seized in the 2023 attack on Israel.
Gaza City is the capital of the Gaza Strip and used to house Hamas’ most powerful battalions before the war.
“Are we now being killed as the citizens of the state of Palestine? Is that what happened?” said Abu Mustafa, hours after he fled his Gaza City home because Israeli tanks were close.
“Those countries who suddenly remembered Palestine was occupied forgot that Gaza is being wiped out. We want the war to end, we want our slaughter to end, that’s what we need now, not declarations.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the criticism of the military campaign and said the war will not stop until Hamas is eliminated. But he has not produced a plan for shattered Gaza after the war ends.
TRUMP TO ADDRESS U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY
U.S. President Donald Trump will meet leaders and officials from several Muslim-majority countries on Tuesday and discuss the situation in Gaza.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday Trump would hold a multilateral meeting with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Washington wants Arab and Muslim countries to agree to send military forces to Gaza to enable Israel’s withdrawal and to secure funding for transition and rebuilding programmes, Axios reported.
In February, Trump proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza and a permanent displacement of Palestinians from there. It was labelled as an “ethnic cleansing” proposal by rights experts and the U.N. Forcible displacement is illegal under international law. He will address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.
Mohammed Al-Bayari, a 36-year-old father of six, had little time to think about global diplomacy as he and his children pulled a cart with their meagre belongings uphill in Gaza during a 14-hour search for somewhere safe for the family.
“Every 10 to 15 minutes I need to rest for half an hour,” he said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, May Angel, Michelle Nichols, Alexander Cornwell and Lewis Macdonald, Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by Timothy Heritage, William Maclean)
