Israel is preparing to move its operations in Gaza even further south, near the border with Egypt, after claiming to have dismantled Hamas in the Khan Younis area, as diplomatic efforts toward a ceasefire accelerate.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday that success in fighting Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where Israel launched a major ground attack last week, means his forces can advance towards Rafah, on the southern border of the enclave.
More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants take refuge in this area, suffering cold and hunger and surviving in makeshift tents and public buildings.
"We are fulfilling our mission in Khan Yunis and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate the terrorist elements that threaten us," Gallant said in a statement.
At the same time, Qatari and Egyptian mediators were hoping for a positive response from Hamas, which rules Gaza, to the first concrete proposal for a prolonged cessation of fighting, agreed with Israel and the United States at talks in Paris last week.
A Palestinian official close to the negotiations told Reuters that the text provides for a first phase of 40 days, during which fighting would cease while Hamas freed the remaining civilians among the more than 100 hostages it still holds. In later phases, the handover of Israeli soldiers and the bodies of the dead hostages would begin.
This hypothetical long pause would be the first since October 7, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, precipitating an Israeli offensive that has devastated much of Gaza.
Health officials in the enclave said Thursday that the confirmed Palestinian death toll had now surpassed 27,000 and that thousands of bodies remained under the rubble.
A Palestinian official said Hamas was unlikely to reject the proposal outright, but would demand guarantees that fighting would not resume, something Israel has not agreed to.
There was brief jubilation in Gaza on Thursday after remarks by a Qatari spokesman at Johns Hopkins University in Washington raised hopes of a ceasefire. But Qatari officials in Doha and Taher Al-Nono, a media adviser to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, said the group had not yet responded.
Gaza residents explain that Israeli forces attacked areas around hospitals in Khan Younis and intensified attacks near Rafah. Fighting has also increased in recent days in northern areas around Gaza City, which Israel claimed to have dominated weeks ago.
Osama Ahmed, 49, a father of five from Gaza City who is now sheltering in western Khan Younis, said there had been fierce resistance in the city and relentless shelling by air, land and sea as they advanced. Israeli tanks. "All we want now is a ceasefire," he told Reuters by phone.
