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WASHINGTON – Fighting raged on Nov 19 between Hamas militants and Israeli forces in parts of northern Gaza, as a report of a tentative hostage release deal was denied.
Israeli air strikes, meanwhile, killed dozens of Palestinians in the enclave’s centre.
Israel and Hamas have not yet reached a deal on a temporary ceasefire, the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Nov 18.
The United States is continuing to work to get a deal between the two sides, a White House spokesperson said. A second US official confirmed no deal had been reached.
“No deal yet, but we continue to work hard to get a deal,” Ms Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, said in a statement.
Mr Netanyahu told a press conference on Nov 18 evening: “Concerning the hostages, there are many unsubstantiated rumours, many incorrect reports. I would like to make it clear: As of now, there has been no deal. But I want to promise: When there is something to say – we will report to you about it.”
“The challenges that remain in the negotiations are very minor compared with the bigger challenges, they are more logistical, they are more practical,” Sheikh Mohammed said at a joint press conference with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Doha.
“The deal is going through ups and downs from time to time throughout the last few weeks,” he said. “I think that I’m now more confident that we are close enough to reach a deal that can bring the people safely back to their homes.”
The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the deal, reported earlier on Nov 18 that Israel, the US and Hamas have reached a tentative agreement to free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.
The hostage release could begin within the next several days, barring last-minute hitches, according to people familiar with the detailed, six-page agreement, the paper said.
Under the agreement, all parties would freeze combat operations for at least five days while 50 or more hostages are released in groups every 24 hours, the Post reported.
Hamas took about 240 hostages during its Oct 7 rampage inside Israel that killed 1,200 people.
The pause also is intended to allow a significant amount of humanitarian aid in, the newspaper said, adding the outline for the deal was put together during weeks of talks in Qatar.
The report comes as Israel appears to be preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas militants to southern Gaza after air strikes killed dozens of Palestinians, including civilians reported to be sheltering at two schools.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Oct 7 attack.
But guerrilla-style Hamas resistance remains fierce in pockets of the heavily urbanised north, including parts of Gaza City and the sprawling Jabalia and Beach refugee camps.
Witnesses reported heavy fighting overnight between Hamas gunmen and Israeli ground forces trying to advance into Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s camps with nearly 100,000 people, most of whom rejected Israeli appeals to evacuate to the south.
Jabalia has come under repeated Israeli bombardment that has killed scores of civilians, Palestinian medics say, with Israel saying the strikes have killed many militants harbouring there.
As the conflict entered its seventh week, the authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip raised their death toll to 12,300, including 5,000 children.
In the centre of the narrow coastal enclave, Palestinian medics said 31 people were killed, including two local journalists, in Israeli air strikes on the Bureij and Nusseirat refugee camps.
Another air strike killed a woman and her child overnight in the southern city of Khan Younis, they said.
In Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, dozens of Palestinians marched to a funeral for 15 residents killed in an Israeli strike on an apartment block on Saturday.
“Our youth are dying, women and children are dying, where are the Arab presidents?“ said Ms Heydaya Asfour, a relative of some of the dead.
The Israeli army says Hamas uses residential and other civilian buildings as cover for command centres, weapons, rocket launchpads and a vast underground tunnel network. The Islamist movement denies using human shields to wage war.
Hamas’ armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said militants killed six soldiers at close range in the village of Juhr al-Dik just east of Gaza City after ambushing them with an anti-personnel missile and closing in with machine guns.
Seven Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting on Nov 18, the military said, without giving details.
After dropping leaflets earlier in the week, Israel on Nov 18 again warned civilians in parts of southern Gaza to relocate as it girds for an onslaught after subduing the north.
Raising international alarm, Israel made Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City a primary focus of its ground advance in northern Gaza.
A team led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which visited Al Shifa on Nov 18 described it as a “death zone” with signs of gunfire and shelling.
WHO said it was developing plans for immediate evacuation of the remaining patients and staff.
There were 25 health workers and 291 patients, including 32 babies in critical condition, remaining in Al-Shifa, the WHO said.
Elsewhere in the north, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA, the UN aid organisation for Palestinian refugees, said on social media platform X that Israel bombarded two agency schools. More than 4,000 civilians were sheltered at one of them, he said.
“Dozens reported killed including children,” he said. “Second time in less than 24 hours schools are not spared. ENOUGH, these horrors must stop.”
A spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas authorities said 200 people had been killed or injured at the school. Israel’s military did not comment.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose government controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, appealed to US President Joe Biden to intervene to stop the Israeli operation in Gaza.
Mr Biden, who opposes a ceasefire, was looking to the end of the conflict, saying in a Washington Post opinion article that the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern both Gaza and the West Bank.
Asked about Mr Biden’s proposal, Mr Netanyahu told reporters in Tel Aviv the Palestinian Authority in its current form was not capable of being responsible for Gaza. Israel has not disclosed a strategy for Gaza after the war.
An Israeli offensive in the south could compel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza City in the north to uproot again, along with residents of Khan Younis, a city of more than 400,000, compounding a dire humanitarian crisis.
The conflict has already displaced around two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
An advance into southern Gaza may prove more complicated and deadlier than in the north, however, with Hamas militants dug into the Khan Younis region, a senior Israeli source and two top former officials said.
Source: Reuters
加薩北部衝突加劇，以色列與哈馬斯的協議被否決
華盛頓 — 11 月 19 日，哈馬斯武裝分子與以色列軍隊在加薩北部部分地區爆發激烈戰鬥，有關暫定釋放人質協議的報導遭到否認。
同時，以色列的空襲導致飛地中心的數十名巴勒斯坦人死亡。
白宮和以色列總理本傑明·內塔尼亞胡 11 月 18 日表示，以色列和哈馬斯尚未就臨時停火達成協議。
白宮發言人表示，美國正在繼續努力讓雙方達成協議。 另一位美國官員證實尚未達成任何協議。
白宮國家安全委員會發言人艾德麗安·沃森在一份聲明中表示： “尚未達成協議，但我們將繼續努力達成協議。”
內塔尼亞胡先生在11月18日晚間的記者會上表示：「關於人質，有許多未經證實的謠言，許多不正確的報道。 我想澄清的是：到目前為止，還沒有達成任何協議。 但我想保證：當有話要說時，我們會向您報告。”
但卡達總理謝赫穆罕默德·本·阿卜杜拉赫曼·本·賈西姆·阿勒薩尼於11 月19 日表示，釋放哈馬斯在10 月7 日襲擊以色列時扣押的人質的協議現在取決於“次要”實際問題。
謝赫穆罕默德在多哈與歐盟外交政策負責人何塞普博雷爾舉行的聯合新聞發布會上表示：「與更大的挑戰相比，談判中剩下的挑戰非常小，它們更具後勤性，也更實際。”
「在過去幾周里，這筆交易時不時地經歷起起落落，」他說。 “我認為我現在更有信心，我們已經足夠接近達成協議，讓人們安全返回家園。”
《華盛頓郵報》11 月18 日稍早援引知情人士的話報道稱，以色列、美國和哈馬斯已達成一項臨時協議，釋放在加薩被扣為人質的數十名婦女和兒童，以換取暫停戰鬥五天。
該報稱，據熟悉這份六頁詳細協議的人士透露，除非最後一刻出現意外，人質釋放可能會在未來幾天內開始。
根據《華盛頓郵報》報道，根據協議，各方將凍結戰鬥行動至少五天，同時每 24 小時分批釋放 50 名人質或更多。
10 月 7 日，哈馬斯在以色列境內發動攻擊，劫持了約 240 名人質，造成 1,200 人死亡。
該報稱，暫停的目的還在於允許大量人道主義援助進入，並補充說，該協議的大綱是在卡達舉行的數週談判期間制定的。
該報告發布之際，以色列似乎正準備將針對哈馬斯武裝分子的攻勢擴大到加薩南部，此前空襲造成數十名巴勒斯坦人死亡，其中包括據報道在兩所學校避難的平民。
10 月 7 日襲擊後，以色列發誓要摧毀哈馬斯。
但在高度都市化的北部地區，包括加薩城的部分地區以及規模龐大的賈巴利亞和海灘難民營，遊擊式的哈馬斯抵抗依然激烈。
目擊者稱，哈馬斯槍手和試圖挺進賈巴利亞的以色列地面部隊之間發生了激烈戰鬥，賈巴利亞是該飛地最大的營地，有近10 萬人，其中大多數人拒絕了以色列向南部撤離的呼籲。
巴勒斯坦醫務人員稱，賈巴利亞遭到以色列的多次轟炸，造成數十名平民死亡，以色列稱襲擊殺死了那裡藏身的許多武裝分子。
隨著衝突進入第七週，哈馬斯統治的加薩地帶當局將死亡人數增加至 12,300 人，其中包括 5,000 名兒童。
巴勒斯坦醫務人員表示，在這片狹窄的沿海飛地中心，以色列對布雷吉和努塞拉特難民營的空襲造成 31 人死亡，包括兩名當地記者。
他們說，在夜間，南部城市汗尤尼斯的另一次空襲導致一名婦女和她的孩子死亡。
在汗尤尼斯的納賽爾醫院，數十名巴勒斯坦人遊行參加週六以色列對公寓大樓襲擊中喪生的 15 名居民的葬禮。
「我們的年輕人正在死去，婦女和兒童正在死去，阿拉伯總統在哪裡？」一些死者的親屬海達亞·阿斯福女士說。
以色列軍方表示，哈馬斯利用住宅和其他民用建築作為指揮中心、武器、火箭發射台和龐大的地下隧道網路的掩護。 伊斯蘭運動否認使用人體盾牌發動戰爭。
哈馬斯武裝組織卡薩姆旅表示，武裝分子在加薩城以東的 Juhr al-Dik 村用殺傷人員導彈伏擊並用機槍逼近後，近距離殺死了六名士兵。
軍方表示，7 名以色列士兵在 11 月 18 日的戰鬥中喪生，但沒有透露細節。
繼本週稍早散發傳單後，以色列於 11 月 18 日再次警告加薩南部部分地區的平民搬遷，因為以色列在征服北部後準備發動襲擊。
以色列將加薩城的希法醫院作為其在加薩北部推進的主要焦點，這引起了國際社會的警覺。
由世界衛生組織 (WHO) 領導的一個團隊於 11 月 18 日訪問了阿爾希法，將其描述為“死亡區”，有槍聲和砲擊的跡象。
世衛組織表示，正在製定立即疏散剩餘患者和工作人員的計畫。
世界衛生組織表示，仍有 25 名衛生工作者和 291 名患者留在 Al-Shifa，其中包括 32 名情況危急的嬰兒。
在北部其他地方，聯合國巴勒斯坦難民援助組織近東救濟工程處總專員菲利普·拉扎里尼在社群媒體平台X上表示，以色列轟炸了該機構的兩所學校。 他說，其中一處避難所收容了 4,000 多名平民。
「據報道有數十人死亡，其中包括兒童，」他說。 「在不到 24 小時內，學校第二次未能倖免。 夠了，這些恐怖必須停止。”
加薩哈馬斯當局發言人表示，該校已有 200 人死傷。 以色列軍方沒有發表評論。
巴勒斯坦權力機構主席馬哈茂德·阿巴斯的政府控制以色列佔領的約旦河西岸部分地區，他呼籲美國總統拜登幹預，阻止以色列在加薩的行動。
反對停火的拜登先生正在尋求衝突的結束，他在《華盛頓郵報》的一篇評論文章中表示，巴勒斯坦權力機構最終應該管理加薩和約旦河西岸。
當被問及拜登的提議時，內塔尼亞胡在特拉維夫告訴記者，目前形式的巴勒斯坦權力機構沒有能力對加薩負責。 以色列尚未透露戰後對加薩的戰略。
以色列在南部的攻擊可能迫使數十萬逃離北部加薩城的巴勒斯坦人以及人口超過 40 萬的汗尤尼斯市的居民再次離開家鄉，加劇可怕的人道主義危機。
衝突已導致加薩 230 萬人口中約三分之二流離失所。
然而，一名以色列高級消息人士和兩名前高級官員表示，隨著哈馬斯武裝分子深入汗尤尼斯地區，向加薩南部推進可能比北部更加複雜和致命。
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