PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES â Israeli helicopters struck Gazaâs Rafah Thursday, residents said, with militants reporting street battles in the southern city as US President Joe Biden called Hamas the âbiggest hang-upâ to another truce.
Tensions also soared on Israelâs northern border with more attacks by Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah targeting military positions.
Israeli ground forces have operated in Rafah since early May, despite widespread alarm over the fate of Palestinian civilians there and an International Court of Justice ruling later that month.
Western areas of Rafah came under heavy fire on Thursday, residents said.
âThere was very intense fire from warplanes, Apaches (helicopters) and quadcopters, in addition to Israeli artillery and military battle ships, all of which were striking the area west of Rafah,â one told AFP.
Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops on the streets of the city near the besieged Gaza Stripâs border with Egypt.
In Italy at a G7 summit, Biden called Hamas âthe biggest hang-up so farâ to a deal on a Gaza truce and hostage release.
âIâve laid out an approach that has been endorsed by the UN Security Council, by the G7, by the Israelis, and the biggest hang-up so far is Hamas refusing to sign on even though they have submitted something similar,â he told reporters.
âWhether or not that comes to fruition remains to be seen,â he said.
The war began after Hamasâs unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza although the army says 41 are dead.
Israelâs retaliatory military offensive has left at least 37,232 people dead in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territoryâs health ministry.
Ceasefire push
Efforts to reach a truce stalled when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, but Biden in late May launched a new effort to secure a deal.
On Monday the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution supporting the plan, and on Thursday German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said G7 leaders âcall on Hamas in particular to give the necessary consentâ.
Some Gazans have also called on Hamas to do more to secure an agreement.
âWhat are you waiting for? The war must end at any cost,â said a man called Abu Shaker.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Doha on Wednesday to promote Bidenâs roadmap, said Washington would work with regional partners to âclose the dealâ.
The plan for the first Gaza truce since a week-long pause in November includes a six-week ceasefire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and Gaza reconstruction.
Hamas responded to mediators Qatar and Egypt late Tuesday. Blinken said some of its proposed amendments âare workable and some are notâ.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group sought âa permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawalâ of Israeli troops from Gaza, demands repeatedly rejected by Israel.
Blinken said Israel was behind the plan, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government allies strongly oppose the deal, has not publicly endorsed it.
In Jerusalem, a student-led protest near Israelâs parliament urged the government to secure a hostage release deal.
âCeasefire now,â said one banner as demonstrators marched with portraits of some of the hostages.
âNo Eid spiritâ
The war has caused widespread destruction in Gaza, with hospitals out of service and the UN warning of famine.
A UN investigation concluded Wednesday that Israel had committed crimes against humanity during the war, while Israeli and Palestinian armed groups had both committed war crimes.
The World Health Organization said more than 8,000 children aged under five have been treated for acute malnutrition in Gaza.
As Muslims worldwide prepare to celebrate Eid al-Adha beginning Sunday, displaced Gazan Umm Thaer Naseer said âwe do not have anything to prepare for Eidâ.
âThe children ask their father to buy clothesâ for the holiday, she said in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, adding that prices of anything from basic commodities to toys have soared.
âWhere will their father buy them from? He has been unemployed for eight months and moves from one tent to another⌠Their father can barely feed himself.â
Another displaced Gazan, Fadi Naseer, told AFP that âin normal timesâ homes and streets are decorated for the festival, but âtoday we donât even have a house anymore, and there is nothing to decorateâ.
âThere is no Eid spirit,â he added.
Regional âdangerâ
Israelâs military on Thursday said troops carried out âtargeted operations in the area of Rafahâ, where they found weapons and killed several militants âin close-quarters encountersâ.
It said at least 10 militants were killed in central Gaza, where the Palestinian civil defence agency reported three dead after an Israeli strike on a home in Nuseirat.
Fallout from the Gaza war is regularly felt on the Israeli-Lebanon frontier, where deadly cross-border exchanges have escalated.
Hezbollah on both Wednesday and Thursday said it attacked military targets in Israel with barrages of rockets and drones, in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed one of its commanders.
The Israeli military said most launches had been intercepted while others ignited fires. A government spokesman said âIsrael will respond with force to all aggressions by Hezbollahâ.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said the potential âexpansion of the war is a danger, not only for Lebanon but for the entire regionâ.
In the occupied West Bank, where violence has also soared during the war, Palestinian officials said an Israeli military raid killed three people in the northern town of Qabatiyah.
The army said its latest âcounterterrorism operationâ targeted âtwo senior wanted suspectsâ.
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