Israel turns focus of fighting farther south

JERUSALEM/DOHA — Israel prepared to advance its fighting on Gaza farther south, close to the Egyptian border, after claiming to have dismantled Hamas in Khan Younis, as diplomatic efforts in pursuit of a cease-fire accelerated.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday that success in the fight against the Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where Israel launched a major ground attack last week, meant its forces could advance to Rafah on the enclave's southern border.

More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are sheltering in this area, mainly cold and hungry in makeshift tents and public buildings.

"We are achieving our missions in Khan Younis, and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate terror elements that threaten us," Gallant said in a statement.

At the same time, Qatari and Egyptian mediators hoped for a positive response from Hamas, which runs Gaza, to the first concrete proposal for an extended halt to the fighting, agreed with Israel and the United States at talks in Paris last week.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations told Reuters the text envisages a first phase of 40 days, during which fighting would cease while Hamas freed remaining civilians among the more than 100 hostages it still holds. Further phases would see the handover of Israeli soldiers and bodies of dead hostages.

Such a long pause would be a first since Oct 7, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing around 250 hostages, precipitating an Israeli offensive that has laid waste to much of Gaza.

Health officials in the enclave said on Friday that the confirmed Palestinian death toll had risen to at least 27,131, with thousands more dead still lying 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.

Brief elation

There was brief elation in Gaza on Thursday after remarks by a Qatari spokesman at Johns Hopkins University in Washington sparked cease-fire hopes, and a drop in the price of crude oil.

But Qatari officials in the capital Doha and Taher Al-Nono, media adviser to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, said the group had not responded yet.

Gaza residents said Israeli forces pounded areas around hospitals in Khan Younis, and stepped up attacks close to Rafah. Combat has also surged in recent days in northern areas around Gaza City that Israel claimed to have subdued weeks ago.

Osama Ahmed, a 49-year-old father of five from Gaza City now sheltering in western Khan Younis, said there had been fierce resistance in the city, and relentless bombardment from air, ground and sea as Israeli tanks advanced.

"All we want is a cease-fire now," he told Reuters by phone.

Appeals to Israel from its allies show little sign of having succeeded in easing the plight of Gaza's civilians.

Britain's top diplomat said on Thursday that his country could officially recognize a Palestinian state after a cease-fire in Gaza, without waiting for the outcome of what could be yearslong talks between Israelis and the Palestinians on a two-state solution.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron, speaking to The Associated Press during a visit to Lebanon intended to tamp down regional tensions, said no recognition could come while Hamas remained in Gaza, but that it could take place while Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders were continuing.

In a report published on Wednesday, a UN body said it could take until the closing years of the century for Gaza's economy to regain its pre-conflict size if hostilities in Gaza were to cease immediately.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said the conflict had precipitated a 24 percent contraction in Gaza's GDP and a 26.1 percent drop in GDP per capita for all of 2023.

UNCTAD said if the military operation were to end and reconstruction were to start immediately, and if the growth trend seen in 2007-2022 persisted at an annual average rate of 0.4 percent, Gaza could restore its pre-conflict GDP levels in 2092.

Agencies - Xinhua