Israel Launches Another Offensive in Gaza’s South Amid Push for Truce

[Pelican Press 0]

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******* Launches Another Offensive in Gaza’s South Amid Push for Truce

An ******** ground ******** in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes and shelters, many for a third time or more, even as the ******* States and some ***** allies pressed both ******* and ****** to restart peace talks.

Between 60,000 and 70,000 people had fled by Thursday evening after the ******** military ordered people in the city of Khan Younis to leave, according to UNRWA, the ******* Nations agency for ************ refugees. More continued to flee into the night and into Friday.

The ******** military said its troops were “engaged in combat both above and below-ground” in the Khan Younis area, in an ******* involving ground troops, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and paratroopers, and that the air force had struck more than 30 targets. The ********, the military said, was “part of the effort to degrade” ******’ capabilities “as they attempt to regroup.”

Under a blazing sun, women carrying ******* and blankets, men pushing carts and wheelchairs over sandy roads and young children carrying suitcases and backpacks have walked away from homes and shelters and toward unknown destinations. Some were in tears.

“People are sleeping in the streets. Children and women are on the ground without mattresses,” Yafa Abu Aker, a resident of Khan Younis and an independent journalist, told The New York Times in a text message.

“****** is better,” an older woman said on Thursday, in video from the Reuters news agency. “We’re fed up. We’ve already *****. We’re *****.”

The 10-month war in Gaza has ******* nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gazan Health Ministry, and left much of the enclave in rubble.

The ******** military has already carried out multiple ground offensives into Khan Younis, leaving large parts of the city — once a lush area where many residents lived off the fruits and vegetables they grew — unrecognizable to its residents. The ******** on Friday follows a pattern of the ******** military returning to areas that it previously overrun, some more than once to combat ****** fighters.

Seeking to renew truce negotiations, President Biden and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar issued a statement late Thursday calling for talks starting next Thursday, and that they would be willing to present a “final bridging proposal” to both sides. There was “no further time to waste,” they said, a sign of the growing impatience over the stalled peace talks.

The political leader of ******, Ismail Haniyeh, was ******* in an ********** in Tehran in late July. ****** and Iran blamed *******, which has not commented publicly, and Iran vowed revenge for what it called a violation of its sovereignty. Hours earlier, an ******** airstrike in Lebanon ******* a top leader of Hezbollah, which also promised retaliation. There have been no cease-***** negotiations since.

Over a week later, ******* is still bracing for major retaliatory attacks by Iran and Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. In Iran on Friday, officials sent mixed signals about how eager the country was to respond and risk a more direct conflict with *******.

Danny Citrinowicz, a retired ******** intelligence officer and fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said Mr. Biden and allied leaders were probably hoping that their statement, in raising the prospect of a cease-***** in Gaza, would temper the anticipated Iranian retaliation.

“They could then turn the page on this event and focus on the Aug. 15 meeting with the hope of putting something on the table that could bring all sides to an agreement,” he said. “That’s the hope — but will it work? There are a lot of variables.”

******** and ****** officials have repeatedly accused each other of trying to torpedo the talks by introducing new demands. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of ******* insists that ****** must be destroyed, while his ******** critics have accused him of prolonging the war needlessly. His ****** counterpart, Yahya Sinwar, is seen as a hard-liner in the talks, partly because he knows that he is likely to be ******* whether or not the war ends, analysts say.

Mr. Netanyahu said he would send negotiators to talks next Thursday, while ****** has yet to respond to the U.S.-Egypt-Qatar offer.

Much of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million has been on the run throughout the war, chased from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city by *******’s ever-changing military offensives. With the borders closed, most Gazans can’t leave the enclave.

“This is the 14th time we are displaced since the beginning of the war,” Rami Zaki Al-Qara, 42, and a father of four, told The Times in a voice message.

Mr. Al-Qara said that packing up his extended family of 40 people over and over to find safety was exhausting and draining him of hope.

“During each displacement, we wish for ****** at every moment because there is no life in constantly having to take the tent and move it from place to place,” he said.

Mr. Al-Qara and his family have had to leave behind more belongings with each displacement. Finding transportation has become more difficult as the war drags on, so they often leave with only the things they can carry. Sometimes they’ve had to flee under ******** bombardment, forcing them to abandon items like clothing and pots and pans.

Mr. Al-Qara says he knows that this displacement most likely won’t be the last.

“Based on what we have witnessed, the ******** are liars,” he said, noting that even the places designated as safer by ******* often come under *******.

The ******* Nations and other rights organizations have criticized ******* for attacking areas that its own military has designated as humanitarian zones for displaced people. ******* argues that ****** hides among civilians, using them as shields.

Mr. Al-Qara sees only the thousands of people without homes who are forced to wander from one destroyed area to another.

“They cause hundreds of thousands of people to be displaced,” he said of *******. “And, still, now we see the rocket as it falls and wish it would fall on us.”

Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.

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