Ceasefire plans stall as Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza

Palestinian death toll climbs to 2,750; Israel masses thousands of troops in the desert near Gaza border

GAZA:

Hopes for a brief ceasefire in southern Gaza to allow foreign passport holders to leave the besieged Palestinian enclave and aid to be brought in were dashed on Monday, with Israeli bombardments intensifying ahead of an expected ground invasion

Authorities in Gaza said at least 2,750 Palestinians had so far been killed by Israel's brutal retaliatory strikes, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded. Another 1,000 people were missing and believed to be under rubble.

Residents of Gaza said the overnight strikes were the heaviest yet in nine days of conflict. Many houses were flattened and the death toll rose inexorably, they said.

Israeli aircraft bombed areas around Gaza City's Al-Quds hospital early on Monday and ambulances at the facility were unable to move due to the strikes, Palestinian media reported.

Diplomatic efforts have been underway to get aid into the enclave, which has endured unrelenting Israeli bombing since October 7. 

Earlier on Monday, Egyptian security sources had told Reuters that an agreement had been reached to open the crossing to allow aid into the enclave.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement: "There is currently no truce and humanitarian aid in Gaza in exchange for getting foreigners out."

Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari also said there was no Gaza ceasefire and that Israel was continuing its attacks.

Israel has massed forces outside the long-blockaded enclave of 2.4 million in preparation for what the army has said would be a land, air and sea attack involving a "significant ground operation".

"We are at the beginning of intense or enhanced military operations in Gaza City," spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Jonathan Conricus said.

Hamas official Izzat El Reshiq told Reuters that there was "no truth" to the reports about the opening of the crossing with Egypt or a temporary ceasefire.

Egypt has said the crossing remained open from the Egyptian side in recent days but was rendered inoperable due to Israeli bombardments on the Palestinian side.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Monday that the Israeli government had yet to take a stance that allowed the crossing to open. He called the situation faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza "dangerous".

The situation remained unclear at the Rafah crossing, the only one not controlled by Israel. Reuters journalists said a small crowd of people had gathered there waiting to enter Egypt.

The United States had told its citizens in Gaza to get close to the crossing so they can move out. The US government estimates the number of dual-citizen Palestinian-Americans in Gaza at 500 to 600.

Washington is also seeking to secure the release of 199 captives that Israel claims were taken by Hamas back into Gaza. 

US President Joe Biden has sent military aid to Israel but also stressed the need to get humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians and urged Israel to follow the rules of war in its response to the Hamas attacks.

More than one million flee

More than one million people have fled their homes in Gaza in scenes of chaos and despair as Israel bombarded the besieged territory and continued massing troops Monday in preparation for a full-blown ground invasion.

Following an Israeli order to move to the south of the Gaza Strip, people have fled their homes in the north of the enclave to seek shelter wherever they can, including on the streets and in UN-run schools.

Palestinians carrying whatever belongings they can, in bags and suitcases, or packed onto three-wheeled motorbikes, battered cars, vans and even donkey carts have become a common sight.

"No electricity, no water, no internet. I feel like I'm losing my humanity," said Mona Abdel Hamid, 55, who fled Gaza City to Rafah in the south of the enclave, and is having to stay with strangers.

A resident of Gaza walks through the rubble of his neighbourhood following brutal Israeli airstikes. PHOTO: AFP

Humanitarian crisis deepens

As the humanitarian crisis deepened, with food, fuel and water running short, hundreds of tons of aid from several countries have been held up in Egypt pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah border crossing.

Reserves of fuel at all hospitals across the Gaza Strip are expected to last only around 24 more hours, putting thousands of patients at risk, the United Nations Humanitarian Office (OCHA) said early on Monday.

In Tel Al-Hawa in Gaza City, Israeli planes bombed a main road and damaged surrounding houses, forcing hundreds of residents to take shelter in the Red Crescent's Al-Quds Hospital, residents said.

Israeli planes bombed three headquarters of the Civil Emergency and Ambulance Service in Gaza City, killing five people and paralyzing the rescue services in those areas, health officials said.

In a bombing of a house belonging to the Abu Mustafa family in Khan Younis refugee camp, five members of a family were killed.

Suhail Baker, 45, said he woke up to the sound of an explosion from an Israeli air strike that destroyed the house of his neighbour, killing five people.

"We woke up in horror, and we see them dismembered, it took a long time to remove the rubble by the bulldozers to recover the bodies," said Baker.

At a nearby street in Khan Younis, Abu Ahmed, an elderly man sitting outside his house, said: "Israel has taken a decision to kill every last one of us."

More than one million people – almost half the total population of Gaza - have been displaced within the enclave, the United Nations said. The UNWRA agency said it was struggling to cope with their needs.

People across Gaza have severely limited access to clean drinking water. As a last resort, people are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, raising concerns over the spread of waterborne diseases.

For the fifth consecutive day, Gaza has had no electricity, pushing vital services, including health, water and sanitation to the brink of collapse, and worsening food insecurity.

People survey the destruction at Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, following brutal Israeli strikes. PHOTO: Reuters

Blinken in Israel

US officials have warned that the war between Israel and Hamas could escalate after cross-border clashes between Israel and fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah.

As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for talks on Monday, Iran said the United States should be held to account for its role in the conflict.

Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah was killed on the Lebanese side of the border on Friday.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday the United States had seen no indications that Hezbollah militants were amassing on the border to potentially attack Israel.

'Big mistake'

US President Joe Biden said in an interview with the CBS news programme 60 Minutes that while invading and "taking out the extremists" was needed, any move by Israel to occupy Gaza would be a "big mistake".

Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah have warned that an invasion of Gaza would be met with a response.

"No one can guarantee the control of the situation and the non-expansion of the conflicts" if Israel sends its soldiers into Gaza, said Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

The Arab League and African Union have warned an invasion could lead to "a genocide". UN chief Antonio Guterres has warned that the entire region was "on the verge of the abyss".

A ball of fire and smoke rise above buildings during an Israeli strike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. PHOTO: AFP

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said his country had "no interest in a war in the north, we don't want to escalate the situation".

The United States, which has given unequivocal backing to Israel, has sent two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean as a deterrent.

The White House has voiced fears at the prospect of Iran becoming "directly engaged" after Tehran praised the Hamas attack but insisted it was not involved.

Biden, asked in the 60 Minutes interview whether US troops might join the war, said "I don't think that's necessary".

"Israel has one of the finest fighting forces ... I guarantee we're gonna provide them everything they need," he said.

The United States has also appealed to China to use its influence in the region to ease tensions.

On Sunday Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Israel's response had "gone beyond the scope of self-defence", and demanded that it "cease its collective punishment of the people of Gaza".

The UN said Monday that 47 entire families, amounting to around 500 people, have been killed in Israel's bombing campaign.

Foreign governments and aid agencies, including the UN and Red Cross, have repeatedly criticised Israel's evacuation order.

Palestinians gather at a site of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza. PHOTO: Reuters

Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, decried that Israel was connecting humanitarian aid into Gaza with the release of scores of captives capture during the Hamas attack.

"Neither should be conditional," she insisted in a video posted by the UN.

"They have said they want to destroy Hamas, but their current trajectory is going to destroy Gaza."
In Gaza, hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with increasing numbers of dead and injured, with officials saying Sunday that some 9,600 people have been wounded.

Israeli energy minister Israel Katz on Sunday said water supplies to southern Gaza had been switched back on.

But power outages threaten to cripple life-support systems, from seawater desalination plants to food refrigeration and hospital incubators.

Even everyday functions -- from going to the toilet, showering and washing clothes -- are almost impossible, locals said.

Gazans are effectively trapped, with Israeli-controlled crossings closed and Egypt also having shut the Rafah border in the south.

The mood in Israel has swung between collective grief, fury and a strong desire to punish Hamas, which Netanyahu has likened to the Islamic State group. It is proscribed as a terrorist group by several Western governments, including the United States.