Gaza war rages as Hamas studies truce proposal, martyrs' toll soars to 33,360
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - Israel bombed targets in Gaza on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the army will destroy Hamas despite ongoing Cairo talks towards a ceasefire and hostage deal.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 33,360 people have been killed in the territory during the war. The toll includes at least 153 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 75,993 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.
More than six months into the war, Hamas said it was "studying" a new proposal for a temporary truce, submitted during the talks with US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Under the plan, fighting would stop for six weeks, 40 women and child hostages would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and up to 500 aid trucks would enter Gaza per day, a Hamas source said.
Hamas said it "appreciates" the mediators' latest efforts but accused Israel of failing to respond to its long-standing demands, including a full withdrawal of forces from Gaza. Netanyahu stressed -- despite growing pressure from top ally the United States -- that Israel would pursue the twin goals of bringing home the hostages and destroying Hamas after its October 7 attack.
"Today I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo," the premier said in a video message Monday. "We are working all the time to achieve our goals, primarily the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas." He said Israeli forces would storm Gaza's far-southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, despite global concern for the fate of up to 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering there.
The Israeli premier said: "This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of the terrorist battalions there. "It will happen -- there is a date," he vowed without saying when he plans to send troops into the last city in Gaza so far spared a ground invasion. US officials renewed their objections to a Rafah operation, following a phone call last week between President Joe Biden and Netanyahu.
"We have made clear to Israel that we think a full-scale military invasion of Rafah would have an enormously harmful effect on those civilians and that it would ultimately hurt Israel's security," said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. Israel has invited tenders for 40,000 large tents, according to a document on the defence ministry website -– part of its preparations to evacuate Rafah ahead of an offensive, a government source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
'Every home destroyed'
The carnage left by the bloodiest ever Gaza war was on display in the southern city of Khan Yunis, a wasteland of shattered buildings and mountains of rubble after months of heavy bombardment and street fighting. Displaced Palestinians returned on foot, in cars and on donkey-drawn carts after Israeli forces pulled out on Sunday in what the army said was a tactical and temporary withdrawal.
As Palestinians readied for Wednesday's Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, they were stunned at the apocalyptic sight of hundreds of gutted or collapsed buildings, bomb craters and tank tracks in the sand. "I came to see my home, only to find it destroyed and reduced to a pile of rubble," said Umm Ahmad al-Fagawi. "I'm shocked by what I saw. Every home is destroyed, not only mine but also all the neighbours' homes."
Another returnee said she had come back to find "a ruined place -- no water, no electricity, no columns, no walls and no doors, there's nothing. Gaza is not Gaza anymore."
