Israel Defense Forces announced Friday that it has launched an offensive involving ground troops, fighter jets, helicopter gunships and paratroopers in the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza – the third such ground operation conducted by the IDF since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
Israel said the campaign on Khan Younis is in response to Palestinian rocket fire and “intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure.” Residents and displaced people were told to evacuate the area where many had just returned in recent days after Israel’s last incursion into the city in July.
U.S. and Israeli officials have said that Khan Younis is where Yahya Sinwar is believed to be in hiding. Sinwar is the October 7 mastermind recently named to replace top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in the Iranian capital of Tehran, in an airstrike widely assumed to be carried out by Israel.
Hours before the IDF offensive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would resume cease-fire talks, following an urgent push Thursday by U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders of key mediators Qatar and Egypt.
“Pursuant to the proposal by the U.S. and the mediators, Israel will – on 15 August – send the negotiations team to a place to be determined in order to finalize the details of the implementation of the framework agreement,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
In a joint statement Thursday, Biden and the other leaders underscored that “the time has come,” to reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal and called on the warring parties to resume negotiations August 15 in Doha or Cairo.
They said they are prepared to present a “final bridging proposal” to resolve “remaining implementation issues,” if necessary.
A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters Thursday evening did not elaborate on the proposal but said that the framework agreement that is already on the table could be finalized with further concessions on details, like the sequencing of releases of hostages and prisoners.
Hamas has not responded to the calls to resume talks. In hiding, Sinwar cannot be quickly reached by intermediaries.
Wider war
The urgent push for a truce by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt comes amid fears of Tehran’s retaliatory attack on Israel for Haniyeh’s killing on Iranian soil, that could trigger a wider regional war.
Israel also faces retaliation from Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in the wake of its strike in the suburbs of Beirut last week that killed Fuad Shukr, a commander of the Iranian-backed group.
“If [Iran] launch a major war in the Middle East with some massive attack on Israel, which they’re threatening in coordination with other groups, well, that’s obviously going to significantly jeopardize any hope of getting a cease-fire in Gaza, because we’ll very much be focused on other things,” the senior administration official said.
Leaders across Europe, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron, again Friday expressed support for the call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
VOA's Natasha Mozgovaya contributed to this report.
