Israeli troops launch new assault into Gaza’s Khan Younis

It comes as American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators renewed their push for Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal.

Israeli evacuation orders triggered yet another exodus of Palestinians from the heavily destroyed eastern districts of Khan Younis, where many had just returned less than two weeks ago – after the Israeli military’s last incursion into the city in July.

A wave of Israeli air strikes in the city on Friday killed at least 21 Palestinians, medics at the city’s Nasser Hospital said.

With tensions running high along the Israel-Lebanon border, an Israeli drone strike on Friday crashed into an SUV in the Lebanese city of Sidon, killing a Hamas official identified as Samer al-Haj on the main road to the southern port city, Lebanon’s state media reported.

The explosion engulfed al-Haj’s car in flames just outside the sprawling Palestinian refugee camp of Ein al-Hilweh, where Lebanese media reported that he oversaw security matters.

Israel confirmed it targeted al-Haj, describing him as a senior commander in Hamas and accusing him of recruiting militants to attack Israel as well as directing rocket launches.

In the Gaza Strip, one of the air strikes in Khan Younis hit the home of the Abu Moamar family, killing a Palestine TV journalist, his wife and three daughters.

Another strike smashed into tents housing displaced people in Mawasi, a costal community just west of Khan Younis that the Israeli military has designated as a humanitarian zone, killing a journalist for the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV channel and five others.

A third air strike targeted a car in Khan Younis.

Thousands had fled the city on Thursday, carrying essentials such as small gas cylinders, mattresses, tents, backpacks and blankets.

It is at least the third time that Israeli forces have launched a major incursion into Khan Younis, where Israeli and American officials have said they believe Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s newly named top leader and one of the architects of the October 7 attack on Israel, could be hiding.

Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, pledged allegiance to Sinwar as its new leader and promised to carry out his decisions.

Haniyeh’s swift replacement “shows that Hamas is coherent and strong”, said Abu Obaida, the group’s chief spokesperson.

The Israeli military said on Friday its warplanes struck 30 Hamas targets in the city, including fighters and weapons storage sites.

It said troops were searching for Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure while engaging in combat “above and below ground”.

After 10 months of war in Gaza, the mediators’ push aims to resume indirect negotiations for a ceasefire that have been on hold since Sinwar’s predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in a presumed Israeli blast in Tehran on July 31.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed on Thursday that it would send negotiators to talks that mediators have called for on August 15, to be held in either Qatar’s capital Doha or Egypt’s capital Cairo.

Mr Netanyahu’s far-right allies have resisted calls for a ceasefire, with finance minister Bezalel Smotrich calling the latest proposal a “dangerous trap” that amounts to an Israeli surrender.

On Friday, the White House sharply rebuked Mr Smotrich for his opposition to negotiations, with US national security adviser John Kirby telling reporters that his criticism is “ridiculous” and “dead wrong”.

“The views expressed by Mr Smotrich would in fact sacrifice the lives of Israeli hostages, his own countrymen,” Mr Kirby said, in unusually pointed public comments.

There was no immediate response from Hamas, which announced on Tuesday that Sinwar, the group’s leader in Gaza, would replace Haniyeh as the group’s top leader.

Haniyeh previously served as the key interlocutor in the negotiations.

Haniyeh’s killing and that of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli air strike in Beirut brought vows of retaliation from Hezbollah and Iran.

The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, which leads the guard’s operations around the region, repeated promises of retaliation in a letter to Sinwar, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press.

“We are preparing to avenge his blood,” Ismail Qaani wrote, referring to Haniyeh.

International diplomats have been scrambling to prevent an escalation and seal a deal to stop the fighting in Gaza and release the hostages still captive in the enclave.

In a joint statement, the United States, Egypt and Qatar called for the new round of talks, to be held either in Doha or Cairo, and pressed both sides to move ahead.

“There is no further time to waste nor excuses from any party for further delay,” they said, adding that the negotiators have already finalised a framework for the deal.

They said mediators were prepared to present a final compromise “that resolves the remaining implementation issues in a manner that meets the expectations of all parties”.

It did not elaborate on what that would look like.

A key question hanging over the talks is the impact of Sinwar’s elevation to Hamas’s top leadership post.

Seen as a hard-liner within the group, Sinwar has been hiding in the vast network of tunnels running under Gaza throughout the war as Israel vows to kill him.

Sinwar has already been closely involved in negotiations from behind the scenes.

Hamas officials have said negotiators regularly sought his approval on the group’s positions as it pressed for guarantees that a deal would bring a complete end to the war and withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza, in return for the release of all hostages.

Israel says it aims to destroy Hamas after the October 7 attack, in which militants from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250 others.

After a round of release exchanges in November, Israel says 111 hostages remain in Gaza, including 39 bodies.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,600 Palestinians and wounded more than 91,700 others.

More than 1.9 million of Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes, fleeing repeatedly across the territory to escape offensives.

Most are now crowded into ramshackle tent camps.

With sanitation systems collapsed, diseases have run rampant, health officials say, and humanitarian groups are trying to feed the population.

The United Nations says half a million Palestinians are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Israel’s military said on Friday that its forces were still battling Hamas fighters in Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, in an assault there that has lasted three months.