Israel hits Khan Younis amid talks on one-month Gaza truce

[January 24, 2024]  By Andrew Mills, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ahmed Mohamed Hassan and Dan Williams

DOHA/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel and Hamas have made some progress toward agreement on a 30-day ceasefire in Gaza when Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners would be released, sources told Reuters, as Israel pressed ahead with its assault on southern Gaza's main city.

Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt have for weeks shuttled between Israel and the militant group that runs Gaza trying to broker terms for a break in fighting, which would also allow in more food and medical supplies.

But the two sides remain at odds over how to permanently end the Gaza war, which Hamas insists must be decided as part of any ceasefire agreement, the sources said.

Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levy said on Tuesday there would be no ceasefire that left Hamas in power and hostages in Gaza, following the militant group's cross-border rampage on Oct. 7 in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.

And the White House reiterated its insistence that Gaza's future government could not include Hamas leaders, prompting Hamas to say it would not let the U.S. or anyone else "enforce a mandate on our free people".

White House spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. would support a pause in combat to free hostages and let aid in, but gave no timeframe and said he would not call the discussions "negotiations".

Qatar and Egypt did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Palestinian health officials said at least 25,700 Gazans had been killed in the war, including 210 in the previous 24 hours, with thousands more feared lost under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

In their biggest operation in a month, Israeli tanks have pushed through the city of Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering after leaving the north - the early focus of the war.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of an area that the United Nations humanitarian office said was inhabited by half a million people while also shutting off the road from the city towards the Mediterranean coast.

The road was the main escape route for civilians trying to reach Rafah on Gaza's southern edge bordering Egypt - already crammed with more than half the enclave's 2.3 million people. Some people from Khan Younis resorted to dirt roads to try to escape, residents and freelance reporters leaving the area said.

Residents reported fierce gunbattles in the west of the city, where the military said it had killed "numerous" squads of gunmen "with sniper, tank and aerial fire" in the area, which is close to its two main hospitals.

The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said it was fighting Israeli forces in the west, south and east of Khan Younis.

Israel says it has killed around 9,000 militants in total, a figure that Hamas dismisses as an attempt to "portray a fake victory".

HOSPITALS AND AID SERVICES UNDER ATTACK

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said three displaced individuals had been killed and two others wounded at the gate of its headquarters in Khan Younis.

Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra accused Israel of targeting the Nasser Hospital, the largest medical facility still operating, saying attacks were blocking access for medics and patients and threatening to put it out of action.

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in this handout picture released January 23, 2024. Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

"The occupation is placing the lives of medical teams, patients, the injured and the displaced in several hospitals in Khan Younis in danger," he said.

Israel says Hamas fighters operate in and around hospitals, which hospital staff and Hamas deny.

Three hospitals, including Nasser, are in the areas ordered evacuated on Tuesday, the U.N. humanitarian office said.

Martin Griffiths, U.N. coordinator of emergency relief, said on Tuesday that 24 people had been killed in strikes on an aid warehouse, U.N. centre and humanitarian zone in the Khan Younis area, and that an aid distribution centre had come under heavy bombardment.

Video footage from various areas has shown Palestinians burying their dead as best they can, in streets and markets as well as the grounds of hospitals and, more recently, inside Al-Aqsa University, west of Khan Younis.

The World Health Organization said it had managed to deliver 19,000 litres of fuel to Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, from which the bulk of civilians have fled.

It said 120 health and care workers and 300 patients remained at Al-Shifa, and that its convoy had been continually surrounded by thousands of people looking for food and water.

"The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council.

"Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people," he said, denouncing Israel's opposition to creation of a Palestinian state alongside it.

Diplomacy around a ceasefire appeared intense. Qatar said on Tuesday it was "getting a constant stream of replies from both sides, and that in its own right is a cause for optimism".

U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk was in Cairo and due to hold "active" discussions, the White House said. More than 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Each side blamed the other for the collapse of a seven-day truce in November in which Hamas had freed women, children and foreign hostages in exchange for daily releases of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Doha, Bassam Masoud in Gaza, Mohamed Ahmed Hassan in Cairo, Dan Williams, Ari Rabinovitch, Maayan Lubell and Kate Holton in Jerusalem, Jonathan Landay, Simon Lewis and Jeff Mason in Washington; Writing by Cynthia Osterman and Kevin Liffey; Editing by Stephen Coates and Philippa Fletcher)

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