by Bassam Masoud and Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA/DOHA (Reuters) – The advance of Israeli tanks on Khan Younes, the main town in the south of the Gaza Strip, cut off access to two hospitals on Monday, worsening the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, which “could not be worse” according to the head of European diplomacy.
The Israeli army intensified its offensive last week against Khan Younes, now considered the main stronghold of Palestinian Hamas.
This new phase of the war launched on October 7 after the Hamas attack in southern Israel is of unprecedented intensity according to the inhabitants, confronted with aerial, land and naval bombardments.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 25,295 people have been killed – out of a population of 2.3 million – in the enclave since October 7.
The Israeli army reported that three of its soldiers were killed Monday in southern Gaza.
The majority of Palestinian civilians are now massed, in very precarious conditions, in the towns of Deir al Balah and Rafah, respectively north and south of Khan Younes.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had lost contact with its staff at Al Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis, the organization’s main facility, with Israeli tanks stationed outside.
Further west, Israeli tanks reached the Al Maouassi neighborhood near the Mediterranean coast for the first time, cutting off access to Al Khair Hospital and stationing themselves around Al Aqsa University .
The Nasser hospital, the largest establishment still operating in Gaza, is overwhelmed by the wounded, according to witnesses.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al Kidra said in a statement that dozens of dead and injured were in areas targeted by Israeli troops.
NETANYAHU DENIES HOSTAGE AGREEMENT
The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip “could not be worse”, declared Monday the representative of European Union diplomacy Josep Borrell, before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Received in Brussels, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, Riyad al-Maliki, renewed his call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
“The health system has collapsed. Injured Palestinians cannot seek treatment in Gaza, and they cannot leave Gaza to be treated elsewhere,” he lamented.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again ruled out, on Sunday and Monday, any agreement with Hamas with a view to the release of hostages still held in Gaza, stressing that the Palestinian movement had not made a “real proposal”.
Sami al Zouhri, a representative of Hamas’s political wing in exile, told Reuters on Monday that his movement was open to “all initiatives and proposals, but any agreement must be based on an end to aggression and occupation” of Gaza.
In Israel, a group of hostage families, the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, demanded in a statement that Benjamin Netanyahu “clearly declare that we will not abandon the civilians, soldiers and other people kidnapped during the debacle of October”.
The head of the Israeli government said on Sunday that he rejected the term “Hamas monsters.”
“There is no real proposal from Hamas,” he reaffirmed Monday, while rumors spoke of a compromise with a view to the release of hostages under the aegis of the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
“I am saying this as clearly as I can, because there are a lot of incorrect statements which are certainly painful for you,” Benjamin Netanyahu said to relatives of hostages, according to comments reported by his services.
“Conversely,” he added, “there is an initiative on our part that I am not going to dwell on.”
(Reporting Nidal al-Mughrabi in Doha and Bassam Masoud in Gaza; editing Peter Graff; French version Corentin Chappron, edited by Sophie Louet)
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