Israel-Hamas hostage deal edges closer despite fierce fighting in Gaza

GAZA/JERUSALEM – United States and Israeli officials said a deal to free some of the hostages in the besieged enclave of Gaza was edging closer, even as Hamas gunmen battled Israeli forces trying to push into Gaza's largest refugee camp on Nov 19.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages during an

attack on southern Israel on Oct 7

.

The assault prompted Israel to invade the tiny Palestinian territory, which Hamas rules, to wipe out the armed group after several inconclusive wars since 2007.

Israeli tanks and troops stormed Gaza in late October and have since wrested control of large areas of the north and north-west, and the east around Gaza City, the military says.

But Hamas and local witnesses say militants are waging guerrilla-style war in pockets of the densely urbanised north. These include parts of Gaza City and the sprawling Jabalia and Beach refugee camps.

Even as fighting raged on the ground, Israel's ambassador to the United States, Mr Michael Herzog, said in an interview on ABC's This Week that Israel was hopeful that a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas "in coming days".

Reuters reported on Nov 15 that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire that would help boost emergency aid shipments to Gaza civilians, citing an official briefed on the talks.

At the time, the official said general outlines had been agreed but Israel was still negotiating details.

US President Joe Biden told reporters on Nov 19 that he was not in a position to say when the hostages might be out.

“I want to make sure they’re out, and then I’ll tell you,” he said upon arrival at a pre-Thanksgiving holiday event in Virginia with US military personnel.

On Nov 19, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told a press conference in Doha that

the main obstacles to a deal were now "very minor",

with mainly "practical and logistical" issues to surmount.

A White House official also said the "very complicated, very sensitive" negotiations were making progress.

Death toll ‘staggering and unacceptable’

The talks coincide with Israel preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas to Gaza's southern half, signalled by increasing air strikes there on targets that Israel sees as lairs of armed militants.

However, Israel's main ally the United States cautioned it on Nov 19 not to embark on combat operations in the south until military planners have taken into account the safety of fleeing Palestinian civilians.

Gaza's traumatised population has been on the move since the start of the war.

They have been sheltering in hospitals or trudging from the north to the south and, in some cases, back again, in desperate efforts to stay out of the line of fire.

Gaza's Hamas-run government said at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardments since the war began,

including at least 5,500 children.

The civilian death toll in Gaza was "staggering and unacceptable", United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Nov 19, again appealing for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Witnesses reported heavy fighting overnight on Nov 19 between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to advance into Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's camps with nearly 100,000 people.

Jabalia, a poor and crowded district that grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, has come under repeated Israeli bombardment.

Scores of civilians have been killed, according to Palestinian medics. Israel says the strikes have killed many militants dug into the area.

Via social media in Arabic, Israel's military on Nov 19 urged residents of several Jabalia neighbourhoods to evacuate towards south Gaza "to preserve your safety".

To that end, it said it would pause military action from 10am to 2pm.

After the "pause" period expired, 11 Palestinians in Jabalia were killed by an Israeli air strike on a house, the enclave's health ministry said.

The south has also been repeatedly bombarded by Israel, rendering Israeli promises of safety absurd, say Palestinians.

‘Death zone’ at Gaza’s biggest hospital

The Israeli army says Hamas uses residential and other civilian buildings as cover for command centres, weapons caches, rocket launchpads and

a vast underground tunnel network

. Hamas denies using human shields to wage war.

A team led by the World Health Organization that

visited Al-Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, described it as a "death zone",

days after advancing Israeli forces seized the premises to root out an alleged underground Hamas command centre.

The WHO team reported signs of gunfire and shelling, and a mass grave at Al-Shifa's entrance.

It said it was making plans for the immediate evacuation of 291 remaining patients, including the war-wounded, and 25 staff.

Israeli military issued a statement on Nov 19 in response, saying it was conducting “a precise operation to uncover terror infrastructure” at the hospital.

On Nov 19, 31 premature babies were evacuated from Al-Shifa in a joint operation by the UN and Palestinian Red Crescent.

They were being taken over the southern Rafah border crossing to Egypt for hospitalisation, Gaza's health ministry said.

Eight premature babies previously died in Al-Shifa

due to lack of electricity and medication crucial to care, it said.

Hundreds of other patients, staff and displaced people who were sheltering in Al-Shifa left on Nov 18, with Palestinian health officials saying they were ejected inhumanely by Israeli troops and the military saying the departures were voluntary.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 48 journalists and media workers have been confirmed killed in the region since the Oct 7 attack on Israel, including the head of a prominent media institution in Gaza and two other journalists. REUTERS