Israel pounds Gaza, regional tensions high as Hamas studies ceasefire
proposal
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[January 31, 2024]
By Mohammed Salem and Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA/DOHA (Reuters) -Israeli forces pounded areas in northern and
southern Gaza on Wednesday after Hamas said it had received and was
studying a new proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages held in
the Palestinian enclave.
The proposal, presented to the Palestinian militant group by mediators
after talks with Israel, appeared to be the most serious peace
initiative for months in the Israel-Hamas war.
World powers hope to prevent a wider conflict, but tensions in the
Middle East remained high after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels said
they would keep attacking U.S. and British warships in the Red Sea in
solidarity with Palestinians.
Relations between Tehran and Washington are also tense after the deaths
of three U.S. soldiers in a drone strike in Jordan that U.S. officials
blame on Iran-backed militants. Washington has not yet outlined its
response, but Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they would
respond to any U.S. threat.
Gaza health authorities said 26,900 Palestinians had been killed -
including 150 over the past 24 hours - in the war that was triggered
after Hamas fighters stormed from Gaza into Israeli towns on Oct. 7
killing 1,200 and taking 253 hostages.
In the latest fighting, Israel bombarded parts of the city of Khan
Younis in southern Gaza, districts of Gaza City in the north, and areas
in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, residents said.
Witnesses said tanks pummelled areas around Nasser Hospital in Khan
Younis, the largest hospital still functioning in southern Gaza.
To get better access to the frontlines, Palestinian medics say they have
formed field medical points, as reaching the fallen and the wounded in
Khan Younis has become increasingly difficult amid street battles and
artillery strikes
"There's a lot of injuries among the displaced who were in the
industrial quarter and some schools," said the Head of the Emergency
Unit at Nasser Hospital, Nassim Hassan, "many of the injured left loaded
on carts, tuk-tuks, cars or even on foot."
A large number of displaced families have been sheltering in a
warehouse-like building at the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, cowering
in fear as gunfire rattles outside, video from the Palestine Red
Crescent Society showed.
The Red Crescent said on Tuesday Israeli forces had stormed the hospital
and asked displaced people and staff to evacuate at gunpoint. An Israeli
military spokesperson denied this.
Israel's military said its forces had killed at least 25 Palestinian
militants in Gaza in the past 24 hours, and that three Israeli soldiers
had been killed in battle. Some 224 Israeli troops have now been killed
during the ground offensive.
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Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict
between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in this
screen grab taken from a handout video released on January 31, 2024.
Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
THREE-STAGE TRUCE
A senior Hamas official told Reuters the Gaza ceasefire proposal
involved a three-stage truce, during which the group would first
release the remaining civilians among hostages it captured on Oct.
7, then soldiers, and finally the bodies of hostages that were
killed.
The ceasefire proposal followed talks in Paris involving
intelligence chiefs from Israel, the United States and Egypt, with
the prime minister of Qatar. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said he was
going to Cairo to discuss it.
Much of the densely populated Gaza Strip has been devastated by
almost four months of Israeli bombardment, and most of its 2.3
million residents have been uprooted by fighting that international
aid agencies say has caused a humanitarian crisis.
"Any ceasefire that doesn't end the war and return us to our homes
in Gaza City and the north is not worth it," Ahmed, a father of six
who fled his home in Gaza City for Rafah in the south, said by
telephone. "We are exhausted."
But, in a reminder of the huge gap in the public stances of the
warring sides over what it would take to halt combat even
temporarily, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his
vow not to pull troops out of Gaza until "total victory".
Israel says it will not stop fighting until Hamas is eradicated.
Hamas says it will release its remaining captives only as part of a
wider deal to end the war permanently.
REGIONAL TENSIONS
The conflict has triggered concern of an escalation in an already
tense region.
The U.S. and Britain have carried out strikes on Houthi targets in
Yemen over the group's attacks on Red Sea shipping, and returned the
militia to a list of terrorist groups.
But the Houthis' military spokesperson said on Wednesday the group
would continue what it called acts of self defence, stoking fears of
long-term disruptions to world trade.
With tensions also high over Saturday's drone attack on U.S. service
members in Jordan, the U.S. says it has decided how to respond but
has not said how.
Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah has said it is
suspending all its military operations against U.S. troops in the
region. But Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami
remained resolute on Wednesday, saying "no (U.S.) threat will be
left unanswered."
(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell, Fadi Shana, Estelle Shirbon,
Jana Choukeir and Nadine Awadalla; Writing by Timothy Heritage;
Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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