CAIRO: Israeli forces continued their operations near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Monday, amid international pressure for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and prevent it from turning into a wider regional conflict with Iran and its allies.
Palestinian medics said that Israeli military strikes in several areas of Khan Younis on Monday killed at least 16 people and injured several. Meanwhile, more families and displaced people have moved out of the areas threatened by new evacuation orders that told people to leave.
As fighting continued in several areas of the Gaza Strip, Hamas reacted skeptically to the latest round of Egyptian-Qatari-brokered talks scheduled for Thursday, saying it had seen no sign of Israeli movement.
The group said in a statement Sunday that mediators must force Israel to accept a ceasefire proposal based on the ideas of U.S. President Joe Biden, which Hamas had accepted, “instead of pursuing further rounds of negotiations or new proposals that would provide cover for the occupation's aggression.”
Two sources close to Hamas said the group believes the new call for talks was coordinated in advance with Israel to deter Iranian and Hezbollah reactions to the assassination of the group's head Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and a top Hezbollah leader in Lebanon.
“You could say it's a moderate rejection. If Hamas gets a workable plan, a positive Israeli response to the proposal it accepted, things could change, but so far Hamas believes Netanyahu is not serious about reaching an agreement,” said a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort.
Hamas's response to the talks came as preparations for a larger-scale confrontation mounted, with Washington ordering the dispatch of a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East and the Abraham Lincoln strike group accelerating its deployment to the region.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Iran is preparing for a full-scale military strike against Israel, Barack Ravid, a usually well-informed reporter for Axios News, reported on Twitter.
Israel has been preparing for a large-scale attack since last month, when a rocket attack killed 12 young men in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel responded by killing a high-ranking Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
A day after that operation, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran, sparking protests by Iranians, who vowed reprisals against Israel.
The potential escalation highlighted how much the Middle East has been disrupted by the war in Gaza, now in its 11th month.
According to Israeli counts, the Hamas attack on Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip left some 1,200 people dead and more than 250 taken prisoner in Gaza, in one of the most devastating blows inflicted on Israel in its history.
In response, Israeli forces razed Gaza, displaced much of its population and killed some 40,000 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, in a war that has horrified the world.
Dozens of people were killed on Saturday in Israeli attacks on a school building in Gaza City, which the army said targeted fighters from the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Gaza health officials say most of the casualties are civilians, but Israel says at least a third are combatants. Israel says it has lost 329 soldiers in Gaza.
