Fighting rages as crisis nears fifth month
Hamas weighs Gaza cease-fire plan as envoys visit Middle East amid conflict
GAZA/JERUSALEM — Israeli strikes across Gaza killed scores overnight through Monday amid raging battles in the besieged territory’s south as Hamas was reviewing a proposal for a halt in the nearly four-month-long conflict.
French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne was in Egypt and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the Middle East for another crisis tour on Monday to push for a cease-fire and hostage release.
The health ministry in the Hamasruled territory said at least 127 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas government media office said a kindergarten where families were sheltering was hit in the southern border city of Rafah, which is teeming with Palestinians displaced by the conflict.
“There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, from north to south,” displaced man Mohammed Kloub told Agence France-Presse in Rafah.
Blinken set off Sunday on what is his fifth Mideast trip since the Oct 7 attack by Hamas that set off the crisis.
He is expected to begin his trip on Monday in Saudi Arabia before visits to Israel, Egypt and Qatar.
Israel has warned its ground forces could advance on Rafah as part of its campaign to eliminate Hamas.
Strikes and tank fire targeted Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city, with some air raids also hitting nearby Rafah, AFP reported.
Israel’s army said its forces had raided a Hamas training facility in Khan Younis.
The Al-Qadisiya compound contained models of Israeli military bases, armored vehicles, as well as entry points to kibbutzim, a communal settlement in Israel, the army said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that at the nearby Al-Amal hospital there were “alarming signs (of ) a humanitarian disaster … after 14 days of continuous siege”.
With the conflict set to enter a fifth month on Wednesday, international mediators were pressing to seal a proposed truce deal thrashed out in a Paris meeting of top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials.
Stephane Sejourne, on his first Middle East tour, met his counterparts in Egypt and Jordan, with Amman’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi saying “immediate international action” was needed.
Sejourne said he told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of France’s desire “for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and restarting talks for a … two-state solution”.
A top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Hamas wanted “to put an end as quickly as possible to the aggression that our people suffer”.
A Hamas source has said the proposal involves an initial six-week pause that would see more aid delivered into Gaza and the phased release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Tensions soaring
The conflict has also sent regional tensions soaring, with more attacks seen in the region.
US and British warplanes launched a new wave of airstrikes against Houthi camps in northern Yemen late Sunday, reported the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
The strikes hit targets in Saada Province, a Houthi stronghold, and Hodeidah, a strategic Red Sea port city.
Hamas condemned on Sunday the US-British airstrikes on Yemen, considering it “an escalation that will drag the region into more turmoil”.
The United States will launch more strikes against Iran-backed militia groups in the Middle East, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told an NBC program on Sunday.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that US President Joe Biden was hindering Israel’s war effort.
“Instead of giving us his full backing, Biden is busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas,” Ben-Gvir said. “If Trump was in power, the US conduct would be completely different.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Ben-Gvir’s comments as “racist” and called for international sanctions against him, saying he threatens the region’s stability.