Hamas wants Biden plan for Gaza truce implemented, residents flee Khan Younis

Hamas on Sunday demanded the implementation of a plan presented by Joe Biden for a truce in Gaza “rather than conducting more negotiations”, at a time when residents are fleeing en masse Khan Youne's, in the south of the territory, before new Israeli operations.

This call from the Palestinian Islamist movement comes the day after an Israeli raid on a school, considered one of the deadliest since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7 by an attack of unprecedented scale by Hamas on Israeli soil.

Despite international calls for a ceasefire, attempts by mediating countries – Qatar, the United States and Egypt – have failed several times in recent months.

On May 31, the American president announced a plan, presented as coming from Israel, providing, in a first phase, for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages held in the Palestinian territory and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Palestinians flee a neighborhood of Khan Younes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, after an evacuation order from the Israeli army, August 11, 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB

Hamas called on Sunday evening the mediators to “present a road map” to “implement” this plan, “based on the vision of (US President Joe) Biden and the Security Council resolutions of the UN”, “rather than conducting more negotiations or bringing new proposals”.

A few days ago, the mediating countries called for resumption on August 15 of discussions on a truce in Gaza, associated with the release of the hostages. Israel has agreed, but Hamas has not clearly said whether it will participate.

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army called on civilians early on Sunday to leave the area of ​​al-Jalaa, northern districts of the city of Khan Younes, already targeted by several large-scale campaigns.

A cat sits on personal belongings as Palestinians pack their belongings to flee a neighborhood in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, after an evacuation order from the Israeli army, August 11, 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB

She said Hamas had “established a terrorist infrastructure” there and that she was “preparing to carry out operations.”

“We are tired of being displaced 50 times,” sighs Saleh Ghaban, sitting in a makeshift vehicle, his meager belongings piled on board.

– “Blood torn bodies” –

In Gaza City, rescue efforts are still underway the day after the Israeli strike that, according to the Civil Defense in Gaza, killed 93 Palestinians, including women and children, in a school sheltering displaced people, sparking an international outcry.

“It will take us another two days to identify the bodies that were torn to pieces,” said Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.

The Israeli army claimed that the school was used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad (another armed Palestinian movement) to “carry out attacks” against its soldiers, and claimed to have eliminated “at least 19 terrorists” there.

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People walk past posters of the hostages taken to the Gaza Strip during the Hamas attack on October 7, in Tel Aviv, August 11, 2024 © AFP – Oren ZIV

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 – and which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union – after the attack on its soil that killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

Of the 251 people kidnapped, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom have died, according to the army.

The offensive Israeli retaliatory attacks in Gaza have left at least 39,790 people dead, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government's health ministry, which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed.

Palestinians flee a neighborhood in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, after an evacuation order from the Israeli army, August 11, 2024 © AFP – Bashar TALEB

Israeli troops regularly return to areas from which they had withdrawn in the face of the resurgence of Palestinian fighter units. On Sunday, more bombings were carried out on Khan Younis.

According to AFPTV footage, Palestinians flocked to the city's Nasser hospital after a strike, carrying bodies and wounded people dressed in blood-stained T-shirts.

Cloud of smoke above Nusseirat in the central Gaza Strip following a bombardment, August 11, 2024 © AFP – Eyad BABA

In recent days, more than 75,000 people have been displaced in the southwest, according to the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees (Unrwa).

Other areas in the center and north of the besieged Palestinian territory were targeted overnight. At least two people were killed, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

– Three dead in Lebanon –

Palestinians inspect the damage caused by bombings in Gaza City, August 11, 2024 © AFP – Omar AL-QATTAA

Military escalation threatens in the region, where Israel's enemies have opened several fronts against it, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, which has been exchanging fire almost daily with the Israeli army on the Israeli-Lebanese border for more than ten months.

On Sunday, Hezbollah announced that three of its fighters had been killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, including two on Sunday. The army said it had struck infrastructure of the pro-Iranian movement.

The situation has been even more explosive since the assassination on July 31 in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, attributed to Israel, and the death on July 30 of Hezbollah military leader Fouad Chokr, killed in a strike near Beirut claimed by Israel.

Iran and its allies have threatened Israel with a “severe” response.

In the occupied West Bank, where tensions have risen sharply, the Israeli army indicated that an Israeli civilian in his twenties had been killed in an attack by “terrorists”, still wanted, on vehicles.

Cars wait to pass through a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank after a deadly attack, August 11, 2024 © AFP – JAAFAR ASHTIYEH

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who sits in the West Bank, will visit Russia from Monday where he is scheduled to meet Vladimir Putin.

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