Israel turns focus of Gaza attack to Rafah as death toll tops 27,000

Israel prepared to advance its war on Gaza farther south, close to the Egyptian border, after claiming to have dismantled Hamas in Khan Younis, as diplomatic efforts in pursuit of a ceasefire accelerated.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that success in the fight against Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, where Israel launched a major ground attack last week, meant its forces could advance to Rafah on the enclave’s southern border.

More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering in this area, mainly cold and hungry in makeshift tents and public buildings.

“We are achieving our missions in Khan Younis, and we will also reach Rafah” Gallant said in a statement.

At the same time, Qatari and Egyptian mediators hoped for a positive response from Hamas, which runs Gaza, to the first concrete proposal for an extended halt to fighting, agreed with Israel and the U.S. at talks in Paris last week.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations told Reuters the text envisages a first phase of 40 days, during which fighting would cease while Hamas freed remaining civilians among the more than 100 hostages it still holds. Further phases would see the handover of Israeli soldiers and bodies of dead hostages.

Such a long pause would be a first since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, precipitating an Israeli offensive that has laid waste to much of Gaza.

Health officials in the enclave said on Thursday the confirmed Palestinian death toll had risen above 27,000, with thousands more dead still lying under the rubble.

NO RESPONSE FROM HAMAS YET TO PROPOSAL

A Palestinian official said Hamas was unlikely to reject the proposal outright, but would demand guarantees that fighting would not resume, something Israel has not agreed to.

There was brief elation in Gaza on Thursday after remarks by a Qatari spokesman at Johns Hopkins University in Washington sparked ceasefire hopes – and a drop in the price of crude oil.

But Qatari officials in the capital Doha and Taher Al-Nono, media adviser to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, said the group had not responded yet.

Gaza residents said Israeli forces pounded areas around hospitals in Khan Younis, and stepped up attacks close to Rafah. Combat has also surged in recent days in northern areas around Gaza City that Israel claimed to have subdued weeks ago.