Israel-Gaza war
Israel's assault on Gaza's second largest city continues as a Hamas delegation travels to Egypt for ceasefire and hostage release talks
Wed 24 Jan 2024 3:14pm GMT
Thousands of people seeking refuge in hospitals in Khan Younis are now trapped by the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip's second largest city, while a Hamas delegation is heading to Egypt for the latest round of negotiations on a further ceasefire and an agreement on the release of hostages traveled.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had “encircled” the southern town of Khan Younis after two days of heavy fighting, in what Israeli officials described as the last major ground attack in the three-month-old war before a shift to “lower-intensity” operations targeting , to eradicate the Palestinian militant group.
By Wednesday morning, heavy fighting had reached the gates of Khan Younis' three main hospitals – al-Aqsa, Nasser and al-Amal – making it difficult for civilians to flee, according to Ocha, the United Nations humanitarian agency.
A building at a U.N. agency training center for Palestinian refugees in the city where about 800 people had taken shelter was hit by tank fire on Wednesday, according to the agency's director, who said on social media that nine people were affected Dead and 75 injured, medical teams were unable to enter the building.
About 88,000 Palestinians live in Khan Younis, which is also home to an estimated 425,000 people displaced by fighting elsewhere in the tiny coastal area.
According to Ocha, around 18,000 people, along with 850 patients, are said to have found refuge on the Nasser Hospital premises alone. “Nobody can get in or out [Nasser] “due to the ongoing bombardment,” the agency added, citing medics who also reported that staff had been digging graves on the facility's grounds “due to the expected large number of casualties.”
Nasser Hospital is one of only two in the southern half of the Gaza Strip that can still treat seriously ill patients. The siege reports were also confirmed by Doctors Without Borders and the Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled territory.
Israel has ordered residents to leave part of central Khan Younis, which includes the three hospitals, as it presses forward with the offensive against Hamas sparked by the group's unprecedented attack on Israel that left 1,140 people dead and around 240 were taken hostage.
More than 25,700 people have now been killed in air and ground fighting in Gaza, local authorities said on Wednesday. About 85% of the 2.3 million people in the besieged strip have been forced from their homes and now have to cope with cold, hunger and disease in unsanitary and chaotic makeshift displacement camps.
In a video published by ITV News, a man the reporter had just interviewed, who was among a group of five people carrying a white flag, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers despite having his hands above his head.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a commentary that it “categorically denies any existence of 'field executions'” and said Hamas's use of Gaza's population as human shields was responsible for the operation's devastating civilian death toll. The company denies the accusation.
During the week-long ceasefire in November, 110 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, but several rounds of negotiations led by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, which included facilitating aid to Gaza, are ongoing failed since then.
A Hamas delegation that traveled to the Egyptian capital on Tuesday evening remained there on Wednesday as talks continued, an Egyptian security source said, but Israeli sources told the Hebrew-language press that the parties were still far from reaching agreement to agree on the terms.
It is believed that the agreement currently under consideration calls for a 30-day pause in fighting, during which Israeli hostages will be released in several installments. However, Israel's spokesman Eylon Levy said on Tuesday that the country would not agree to any conditions. Hamas remained in power in Gaza.
Hamas has “absolutely” rejected Israel's offer to end the war if six senior leaders in Gaza agree to go into exile, Portal reported, reiterating that Israel must agree to a permanent end to fighting as part of a hostage deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was criticized last week for reiterating his opposition to an independent Palestinian state, a stance at odds with the United States, Israel's main ally, which says it is committed to pursuing peace talks aimed at a two-party agreement -State solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Joe Biden has expended enormous amounts of international and domestic political capital defending Israel's war effort, despite global outrage over the conflict's devastating humanitarian consequences.
UN Secretary-General says Israel's rejection of two-state solution is 'unacceptable'
Support for the war remains strong among Israelis, but opinion polls show support for Netanyahu and his far-right coalition lagging. Weekly Saturday evening rallies calling for the release of hostages have been supplemented in recent weeks by increasing calls for elections.
Tuesday's killing of 21 Israeli soldiers as they demolished buildings and were hit by shells – the single deadliest incident for Israeli forces in the conflict so far – has deepened public division over the war.
The longer the violence in Gaza continues, the greater the risk of regional escalation.
The fighting has already attracted Iranian proxy groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq and led to retaliatory US attacks in the region. The most dangerous flashpoint is widely seen as a new conflict with the Lebanese group Hezbollah on Israel's northern border, where clashes that began in October have intensified in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah said it had attacked the Israeli air control base on the strategic Mount Meron for the second time in recent weeks, in response to alleged Israeli “assassinations” and attacks on civilians.
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