Prime Minister of Qatar: We will continue to pressure Israel and Hamas to reach a truce

Israeli tanks made their way into the center of Khan Yunis on Sunday, in a new major incursion into the heart of the largest city in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a report by Reuters, residents said that the tanks reached the main road linking the north and south of the Strip through the center of the city of Khan Yunis after intense fighting throughout the night that slowed the Israeli advance from the east. Warplanes bombed the area west of the attack.

The air was filled with the constant sound of explosions, and thick columns of white smoke rose over the city, which houses hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled from other areas of the Strip.

As morning came, near a police station in the city centre, machine gun fire could be heard. The streets were deserted except for an old woman and a girl riding a donkey cart.

A father of four children who was displaced from Gaza City and took refuge in Khan Yunis told Reuters: “It was one of the nights we were most afraid of. The resistance was very strong. We could hear the sound of clashes and explosions that did not stop for hours.” He added: “Tanks reached Gamal Abdel Nasser Street in the center of the country, and snipers climbed some buildings near the area.”

Israel launched its attack on Khan Yunis this week after the collapse of a truce, expanding its ground war to the southern half of the Gaza Strip in a new, expanded phase of its two-month-long campaign to eliminate the Hamas movement. International relief organizations say that this development has left the Strip’s 2.3 million residents with nowhere to go.

At a house in Khan Yunis that was destroyed by bombing during the night, relatives of the dead were searching through the rubble in a dazed state. They recovered the body of a middle-aged man wearing a yellow shirt from under the rubble.

Ahmed Abdel Wahab said: “We prayed at night and slept, then we woke up to find the house above us. Who is still alive?!

He added: “The Civil Defense Forces came and saved whoever they could, and this is what remained. 3 floors above collapsed with people below. God is our savior and the agent in our affairs. My mother, father, sister, brother and all my cousins.”

Israel rejects a ceasefire

For its part, the Islamic Jihad Movement, which is allied with Hamas in Gaza, said that its fighters are facing Israeli forces in the region. The Israeli army said that it bombed underground tunnel passages in Khan Yunis, and attacked a group of Palestinian militants who were setting up an ambush, but it did not mention anything about any tank advance there.

The two sides also reported heavy fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, where Israel previously said its forces had mainly succeeded in their mission last month. Explosions sounded at dawn, and columns of smoke were seen across the fence in Israel.

Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas after armed fighters stormed the border fence and attacked towns in southern Israel on October 7. Israel says the attack killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages to Gaza.

While Gaza health authorities say at least 17,700 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since then, with thousands more missing, believed to have died under the rubble.

The war forced the vast majority of Gazans to leave their homes, and many of them were displaced several times, carrying only what they could carry of their belongings.

Israel says it is doing everything it can to protect them, but even the United States, its closest ally, says it has not kept those promises.

The Israeli blockade cut off supplies, and the United Nations warned of widespread hunger and disease.

At an international conference in Doha, the capital of Qatar, which played the role of main mediator in a week-long truce that saw the release of more than 100 hostages, Arab foreign ministers criticized the United States for using its veto power against a draft UN Security Council resolution on Friday calling for a humanitarian halt. to shoot fire.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said that the war risks pushing an entire generation towards extremism across the Middle East.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he “will not give up” his call for a ceasefire.

Guterres said: “I proposed to the Security Council to put pressure to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, and I repeated my call to declare a humanitarian ceasefire… Unfortunately, the Security Council failed to do so, but this does not diminish the necessity of doing so.”

Israel rejected demands to stop the fighting. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a briefing to his government, on Sunday, that he informed the leaders of France, Germany and other countries: “You cannot, on the one hand, support the elimination of (Hamas), and on the other hand, pressure us to end the war, which would prevent the elimination of (Hamas). )».

Washington supported the Israeli position and rejected any ceasefire as a step that would only benefit Hamas, but as the death toll rose and UN agencies warned of a humanitarian catastrophe, other Western allies abstained from voting. France voted in favor of the draft ceasefire resolution, and Britain abstained from voting.