GAZA: Fighting and bombardment shook Gaza’s biggest city on Thursday, even after the Zionist military declared an end to its operation in an eastern district that saw Gaza City’s heaviest combat in months. The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement followed Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement in late June that “the war in its intense phase is about to end”. It also came as talks were held in the Gulf emirate of Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal after more than nine months of war.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said around 60 bodies had been found in the ruins of Shujaiya. “Once the (Zionist) occupation forces withdrew from the Shujaiya neighborhood, civil defense crews, with local residents, managed to recover about 60 martyrs up to now,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. Some 85 percent of buildings are now “uninhabitable” and Shujaiya has been turned into a “disaster zone”, he added, estimating that 120,000 people had been left homeless.

Hamas said troops had pulled back from Shujaiya, leaving “more than 300 residential units and more than 100 businesses destroyed”. Witnesses said tanks and troops had moved into other Gaza City districts. An AFP correspondent reported air strikes on the Sabra neighborhood while fighters engaged in heavy clashes with Zionist forces in Tel al-Hawa. Explosions and orange flashes shook the darkened city before daylight brought automatic weapons fire, AFPTV images showed.

Hamas reported 45 air strikes in the Gaza City area, as well as in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where Netanyahu had said the intense phase of the war was nearing its conclusion. Netanyahu demanded Thursday that the Zionist entity retain control of key Gaza territory along the border with Egypt as part of any accord to suspend the war with Hamas. The condition conflicts with Hamas’ position that the Zionist entity must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a ceasefire.

Speaking after the return of Zionist negotiators from talks with mediators in Qatar, Netanyahu said the Zionist entity needed control to stop weapons reaching Hamas from Egypt – one of four conditions for a deal with the Palestinian fighters. He did not say if the measure would be permanent.

Hamas said it had not been informed “of any new developments” from the latest talks and accused the Zionist entity of “delaying tactics” aimed at “sabotaging” truce efforts. On Wednesday, the Washington Post had reported that both the Zionist entity and Hamas had “signaled their acceptance of an ‘interim governance’ plan” in which neither would rule the territory and a US-trained force of Palestinian Authority supporters would provide security.

The United States is “moving forward” with sending 500-pound bombs to the Zionist entity after a pause over concerns that 2,000-pound munitions in the same shipment could be used in populated areas, a US official said Thursday. “We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000-pound bombs, particularly in advance of (the Zionist entity’s) Rafah campaign which they have announced they are concluding,” the US official said on condition of anonymity.

“Because of how these shipments are put together, other munitions may sometimes be co-mingled. That’s what happened here with the 500-pound bombs,” the official said, adding: “Because our concern was not about the 500-pound bombs, those are moving forward as part of the usual process.”

The United States on Thursday imposed new sanctions against Zionist extremists over violence against Palestinians, including financial restrictions on four settlement outposts in the West Bank. The State Department also blacklisted Lehava, which it described as the “largest violent extremist organization in (the Zionist entity)” with more than 10,000 members.

The Zionist military offensive has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry. The latest toll included 50 new deaths over the previous 24 hours, it said. On Wednesday, the Zionist army dropped leaflets warning “everyone in Gaza City” that it would “remain a dangerous combat zone”.

Hamas official Hossam Badran told AFP that the Zionist entity was “hoping that the resistance will relinquish its legitimate demands” in truce negotiations. But “the continuation of massacres compels us to adhere to our demands”, he said. The Zionist military said on Wednesday it had completed its mission in Shujaiya after two weeks.

AFPTV images showed Palestinians gathered around a burned out armored vehicle beneath a fire-blackened building. Standing nearby, Mohammed Nairi said he and other residents returned to “immense destruction that defies description. All the houses were demolished.” Another displaced resident, a can of food tucked under her arm, said the district “lies in ruins”. – Agencies