GAZA: Israel bombed targets in Gaza on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the army will destroy Palestinian groups despite ongoing Cairo talks towards a ceasefire and captives deal.
More than six months into the war, Palestinian groups 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 captives would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and up to 500 aid trucks would enter Gaza per day, a 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 captives and destroying Palestinian groups after October 7 attack. "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, part of its preparations to evacuate Rafah ahead of an offensive, a government source said on condition of anonymity.
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 Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan, they were stunned at the apocalyptic sight of hundreds of gutted or collapsed buildings, bomb craters and tank tracks in the sand. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,207 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry. — AFP
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