CAIRO: Israeli forces continued operations near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on Monday, amid an international push for a deal to end fighting in Gaza and halt a slide into a wider regional conflict with Iran and its proxies. .
Palestinian medics said Israeli army strikes in several areas of Khan Younis on Monday killed at least 16 people and wounded several more. Meanwhile, more families and displaced people have moved out of areas threatened by new evacuation orders that told people to vacate the area.
As fighting continued in several areas of the Gaza Strip, Hamas reacted with skepticism to the latest round of talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar, due to take place on Thursday, saying it had seen no sign of movement from the Israeli side.
The group said in a statement on Sunday that mediators must force Israel to accept a cease-fire proposal based on US President Joe Biden's ideas, which Hamas had accepted, “instead of continuing rounds of negotiations or new proposals that to provide cover for occupation aggression. .”
Two sources close to Hamas said the group believes the new call for talks was coordinated in advance with Israel to deter Iranian and Hezbollah responses to the assassination of the group's head Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a top Hezbollah leader in Lebanon.
“It's an easy rejection you can say. If Hamas gets a viable plan, a positive Israeli response to the proposal it accepted, things could change, but so far Hamas believes Netanyahu is not serious about reaching an agreement,” said a close Palestinian official. mediation effort.
Hamas's reaction to the talks came as preparations for a larger-scale confrontation ramped up, with Washington ordering a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East and the Abraham Lincoln strike group accelerating its deployment to the region.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Iran is preparing for a full-scale military attack on Israel, Barack Ravid, a typically well-informed reporter for Axios News, reported on Twitter.
Israel has been bracing for a major attack since last month, when a rocket killed 12 youths in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Israel responded by killing a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
A day after that operation, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran, prompting Iranian vows of retaliation against Israel.
The potential escalation underscored how much the Middle East has been thrown into turmoil by the Gaza war, now in its 11th month.
The Hamas-led assault on Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip killed an estimated 1,200 people, more than 250 of whom were taken captive in Gaza, according to Israeli accounts, in one of the most devastating strikes against Israel in its history.
In response, Israeli forces flattened Gaza, displaced most of the population and killed about 40,000 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry, in a war that has caused horror around the world.
On Saturday, dozens of people were killed in Israeli strikes on a school building in Gaza City that the army said targeted fighters from the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Health officials in Gaza say most of the casualties were civilians, but Israel says at least a third are fighters. Israel says it has lost 329 soldiers in Gaza.
