Fighting continued through Wednesda night in Gaza ahead of the four-day ceasefire for a hostage and prisoner swap, the first diplomatic breakthrough in Israel’s relentless almost seven week blitz.
The deal between Israel and Hamas was struck to allow for the release of 50 of the approximately 240 Israeli hostages Hamas captured during its Oct. 7 terror attack in exchange for up to 150 Palestinian prisoners.
In the hours before Israel was set to ramp down its military campaign at 10 a.m. local time Thursday its defense forces said it had taken over a compound in the Sheikh Zayed neighborhood, the Israeli outlet Haaretz reported.
An Israeli Defense Force fighter jet also intercepted a cruise missile over the Red Sea that was believed to have been launched towards the southern city of Eilat. Yemen’s Iran-backed group Houthis took credit for the attack.
The IDF also said it killed six terrorists and arrested 29 suspects, including three Hamas terrorists in a raid on the Dheisheh refugee camp, the outlet said.
Less than 12 hours until the truce was set to begin, smoke could still be seen rising from Gaza from the vantagepoint of Sderot and highways around Ashkelon, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The IDF showed the newspaper guns, grenades, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and drones equipped to carry explosives which it said it recovered from Al-Shifa Hospital after its raid of the facility, which was housing thousands of refugees and harboring Hamas leaders in its tunnels.
The outlet got an in-person look at the area around the hospital, which its reporter described as a “wasteland,” with much of its infrastructure reduced to rubble and no Palestinians in sight.
Meanwhile in the city of Khan Younis, more than 100 bodies brought from various areas of Gaza were wrapped in plastic blue sheets and fastened with cable ties before being buried in a mass grave Wednesday.
Gaza health officials, controlled by Hamas, said Wednesday that 14,532 Palestinians have been killed during the war and 7,000 are missing. Some 35,000 people had been injured.
Meanwhile, international aid groups were posied ready to move into Gaza the moment the truce was declared, with thousands of trucks with food, water and other urgent necessities lined up to provide relief to the ravaged area, where some 1.7 million people have been displaced from their homes.
A key objective is to get aid into the northern part of the territory, which has been incapacitated by air strikes and is largely inaccessible to humanitarian workers. It has had no water or power and ran out of fuel for generators weeks ago.
The only route for international aid is on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, who had helped mediate the truce.
“The entire humanitarian sector is ready to scale up once everything is set,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
The cease-fire agreement did not soften the rhetoric of Israel or Hamas, which is designated as a terror organization by the US and the European Union.
“As we announce the striking of a truce agreement, we affirm that our fingers remain on the trigger, and our victorious fighters will remain on the look-out to defend our people and defeat the occupation,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recorded message: “We are at war and we will continue the war until we achieve all our goals.
“To destroy Hamas, return all our hostages and ensure that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel.”
With Post wires