Diplomatic efforts to achieve a truce accelerated as Israel readied itself to push its war on Gaza closer to the Egyptian border, having claimed to have decimated Hamas in Khan Younis.
Over 27,000 Palestinian deaths have been confirmed, according to health officials in the besieged region, and many more are believed to be under the debris.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated on Thursday that Israel’s soldiers might now push to Rafah on the southern edge of the enclave if they were successful in fighting the Palestinian rebels in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza where Israel launched a significant ground operation last week.
This region is home to almost half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, who are primarily staying in improvised tents and open-air buildings where they are cold and hungry.
Gallant declared in a statement, “We are reaching Rafah and eliminating terror elements that threaten us. We are also accomplishing our missions in Khan Younis.”
Simultaneously, mediators from Qatar and Egypt anticipated a favorable reaction from Hamas in response to the first specific proposal for a prolonged cease-fire, reached with Israel and the US during discussions in Paris last week.
According to a Palestinian official close to the negotiations, the text calls for a 40-day first phase of ceasefires while Hamas releases the last of the more than 100 civilian prisoners it still holds. Subsequent stages would witness the transfer of Israeli forces and deceased detainees’ bodies.
According to a Palestinian official, Hamas would probably demand guarantees that conflict would not resume instead of simply rejecting the proposal—something Israel has not agreed to.
On Thursday, there was a brief period of joy in Gaza following comments made by a Qatari representative at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, which raised hopes for a truce and caused the price of crude oil to decline.
However, Doha, Qatari authorities, as well as Taher Al-Nono, Ismail Haniyeh’s media advisor, claimed that Hamas had not yet answered.
According to Gaza Palestinians, Israeli forces increased their attacks near Rafah and hammered the area around Khan Younis hospitals. In the northern territories surrounding Gaza City, which Israel claimed to have tamed weeks ago, combat has also increased in the last several days.
As Israeli tanks approached, Osama Ahmed, 49, a father of five from Gaza City who is currently taking refuge in western Khan Younis, reported that there had been intense resistance within the city and constant shelling from the air, ground, and sea.
“We only want a ceasefire right now,” he said over the phone to Reuters.
Thirteen people were injured on Thursday in an airstrike on a residence in Khan Younis, hospital authorities said.
There’s been no indication that Israel’s primary backer, the United States, has been able to alleviate the situation for Gaza’s civilian population.
On the other hand, Washington is increasing its indirect pressure.
In an effort to penalize Jewish settlers who assault Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during a violent outburst brought on by the Gaza conflict, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order.
In addition, Biden is facing pressure to address the fact that three US soldiers were killed by a drone in Jordan last week—the first American casualties in a wave of violence that has erupted across the Middle East since Israel launched its invasion of Gaza in October.
According to four US sources who spoke to Reuters, Iran is the country that manufactured the drone, which also injured over 40 people. The US has stated that it does not wish to start a larger conflict.
Citing US officials, CBS News reported on Thursday that “Iranian personnel and facilities” are among the targets of US strikes in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the killings.
In what it claims is a show of support for Gaza, the Houthi movement in Yemen has assaulted Red Sea commerce, and the US and its allies are continuing to hit it.
Three Iranian-made drones and a Houthi anti-ship missile were downed by an American Navy ship, and the US military reported that it had struck up to ten drones in Yemen that were getting ready to take off.
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