Israel readies push to southern Gaza as temporary ceasefire deal is refuted

WASHINGTON – Israel is preparing to widen its offensive against Hamas militants and move into southern Gaza, as a tentative hostage release deal seems to have been prematurely announced.

This comes as China is opening up another venue to de-escalate the conflict, as it hosts on Nov 20 and 21 top foreign policy officials from the Palestinian Authority and four Muslim-majority countries.

They include the foreign ministers of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia, as well as the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

“During the visit, China will have in-depth communication and coordination with the joint delegation of foreign ministers of Arab and Islamic countries to promote a de-escalation of the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, protecting civilians, and justly resolving the Palestinian issue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in a statement issued on Nov 19.

Israel and Hamas have not yet reached a deal on a temporary ceasefire, the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Nov 18.

“No deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get a deal,” Ms Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, said in a statement.

Mr Netanyahu told a press conference on the evening of Nov 18: “Concerning the hostages, there are many unsubstantiated rumours, many incorrect reports. I would like to make it clear: As of now, there has been no deal. But I want to promise: When there is something to say, we will report to you about it.”

But Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said on Nov 19 that a deal to free hostages Hamas seized in its Oct 7 attack on Israel now hinges on “minor” practical issues.

“The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor compared with the bigger challenges. They are more logistical, they are more practical,” he said at a joint press conference with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Doha.

“The deal is going through ups and downs from time to time throughout the last few weeks,” Sheikh Mohammed said. “I think that I’m now more confident that we are close enough to reach a deal that can bring the people safely back to their homes.”

The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the deal, reported earlier on Nov 18 that Israel, the United States and Hamas had reached a tentative agreement to free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.

The hostage release could begin within the next several days, barring last-minute hitches, according to people familiar with the detailed, six-page agreement, the paper said.

Under the agreement, all parties would freeze combat operations for at least five days while 50 or more hostages are released in groups every 24 hours, the Post reported.

Hamas took about 240 hostages during its Oct 7 rampage inside Israel that killed 1,200 people.

The pause also is intended to allow a significant amount of humanitarian aid in, the newspaper said, adding the outline for the deal was put together during weeks of talks in Qatar.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas

after the Oct 7 attack.

But guerilla-style Hamas resistance remains fierce in pockets of the heavily urbanised north, including parts of Gaza City and the sprawling Jabalia and Beach refugee camps.

Witnesses reported heavy fighting overnight between Hamas gunmen and Israeli ground forces trying to advance into Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s camps with nearly 100,000 people, most of whom rejected Israeli appeals to evacuate to the south.

Jabalia has come under repeated Israeli bombardment that has killed scores of civilians, Palestinian medics say, with Israel saying the strikes have killed many militants harbouring there.

A ground offensive by Israel in the south, meanwhile, appears imminent. That could compel hundreds of thousands who fled Gaza City to uproot yet again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, compounding an already dire humanitarian crisis.

Many, like Ms Laila Abu Nemer who moved from Gaza City to the south, wonder how her family can survive the Israeli onslaught now in its seventh week.

“There is no bread. If we get a loaf of bread, we divide it among the children. There are vegetables. They gave us vegetables, but there is no way to cook, so there is no way the children can eat,” she said.

“It feels hard that every day when we are sleeping with the children, they wake up terrified because of the sound (of explosions). There is no safety at all.”

An Israeli advance into southern Gaza may prove more complicated and deadlier than that in the north, with Hamas militants dug into the Khan Younis region, a power base of Gaza political leader Yahya Sinwar, said a senior Israeli source and two top former officials.

As the conflict entered its seventh week, the authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip raised their death toll to 12,300, including 5,000 children.

In the centre of the narrow coastal enclave, Palestinian medics said 31 people were killed, including two local journalists, in Israeli air strikes on the Bureij and Nusseirat refugee camps.

Another air strike killed a woman and her child overnight in the southern city of Khan Younis, they said.

In Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, dozens of Palestinians marched to a funeral for 15 residents killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment block on Nov 18.

“Our youth are dying, women and children are dying, where are the Arab presidents?“ said Ms Heydaya Asfour, a relative of some of the dead.

The Israeli army says Hamas uses residential and other civilian buildings as cover for command centres, weapons, rocket launchpads and a vast underground tunnel network. The Islamist movement denies using human shields to wage war.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said militants killed six soldiers at close range in the village of Juhr al-Dik, just east of Gaza City, after ambushing them with an anti-personnel missile and closing in with machine guns.

Seven Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting on Nov 18, the military said, without giving details.

After dropping leaflets earlier in the week, Israel on Nov 18 again warned civilians in parts of southern Gaza to relocate as it girds for an onslaught after subduing the north.

Raising international alarm, Israel made Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City a primary focus of its ground advance in northern Gaza.

A team led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that visited Al-Shifa on Nov 18

described it as a “death zone”

with signs of gunfire and shelling.

The WHO said it was developing plans for immediate evacuation of the remaining patients and staff.

There were 25 health workers and 291 patients, including 31 babies in critical condition, remaining in Al-Shifa, the WHO said.

The 31 premature babies were eventually evacuated in a joint operation by the United Nations and Palestinian Red Crescent and taken south in ambulances towards the Emirates Hospital in Rafah.

Elsewhere in the north, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA, the UN aid organisation for Palestinian refugees, said on social media platform X that Israel bombarded two agency schools. More than 4,000 civilians were sheltered at one of them, he said.

“Dozens reported killed including children,” he said. “Second time in less than 24 hours schools are not spared. ENOUGH, these horrors must stop.”

A spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas authorities said 200 people had been killed or injured at the school. Israel’s military did not comment.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, appealed to US President Joe Biden to intervene to stop the Israeli operation in Gaza.

Air strikes

Mr Biden, who opposes a ceasefire, was looking to the end of the conflict, saying in a Washington Post opinion article that the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern both Gaza and the West Bank.

Asked about Mr Biden’s proposal, Mr Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv the Palestinian Authority in its current form was not capable of being responsible for Gaza. Israel has not disclosed a strategy for Gaza after the war.

An Israeli offensive in the south could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City in the north to uproot again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, compounding a dire humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has already displaced around two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

An advance into southern Gaza may prove more complicated and deadlier than in the north, however, with Hamas militants dug into the Khan Younis region, a senior Israeli source and two top former officials said. REUTERS