Israeli strikes intensify in southern Gaza as new hostage deal sought

Israel bombs Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, against a backdrop of negotiations aimed at bringing about a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas in the absence of a long-term peace plan.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said early Tuesday that Israeli forces had targeted its headquarters in Khan Yunis "with artillery shelling on the fourth floor, coinciding with intense gunfire from Israeli drones, resulting in injuries among internally displaced individuals who sought safety on our premises".

The U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA reported that "ground operations, fighting and attacks intensified" over the preceding day around the main southern city, with the Israeli army saying its forces had conducted multiple raids and taken control of Hamas command centres there.

The fierce fighting came as a White House official was due in the region for talks aimed at securing more hostage releases, and as U.S. media reported a new Israeli proposal for a deal that would involve a two-month pause in fighting.

U.N. agencies and aid groups have sounded the alarm about the growing threat of disease and famine in Gaza, where 1.7 million people are estimated to have been displaced from their homes.

Abu Iyad, his belongings piled on a donkey-drawn cart, told AFP on Monday that he was moving for the seventh time, fleeing Khan Yunis for Rafah on the Egyptian border, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have settled, many in makeshift tents.

"I'm heading to the unknown," he said. "They told us to go to Rafah — where to go in Rafah? Is there any space left?"

 Hostage talks 

The war in the Palestinian territory broke out with Hamas's unprecedented Oct. 7 attacks, in response,...