By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told families of hostages held in Gaza that a deal that would secure their release could be near, his office said on Tuesday, as fighting raged in the battered Palestinian enclave.
Israeli forces pressed on with a raid into Gaza’s southern area of Khan Younis after ordering civilians to evacuate some districts they said had been used for renewed attacks by Palestinian militants.
Thousands of people were fleeing for safer areas as Israeli airstrikes hit, U.N. officials said.
Netanyahu is currently in Washington and is expected to meet U.S. President Joe Biden later this week after making an address to Congress.
Speaking in the U.S. capital on Monday to families of hostages, he said: “The conditions (for a deal) are undoubtedly ripening. This is a good sign.”
Months of efforts mediated by Egypt and Qatar to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas gained momentum in recent weeks under a proposal outlined by Biden in May before stalling again.
“Unfortunately, it will not take place all at once; there will be stages. However, I believe that we can advance the deal…,” Netanyahu said.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters there was nothing new in Netanyahu’s stance.
“Netanyahu is still stalling and he is sending delegations only to calm the anger of Israeli captives’ families,” he said.
An Israeli negotiation team was due on Thursday to resume talks that would include hostages being released in return for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. In a week-long truce in November, 105 hostages were freed in return for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
According to two Egyptian security sources, Israel informed Egypt that an Israeli delegation would arrive in Cairo on Wednesday evening, saying it would bring positive responses in order to progress towards an agreement.
The hostages were seized in the Hamas raid into southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which about 1,200 people were killed and around and 250 taken captive, according to Israeli tallies.
Hamas and other militants are still holding 120 hostages, around a third of whom have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.
The death toll among Palestinians in Israel’s retaliatory offensive since then has reached more than 39,000, according to Gaza health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
FEAR AND DISPLACEMENT
In Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli air raids hit the southern city of Khan Younis as Israeli troops and Palestinian militants fought in its shattered streets, forcing civilians to flee.
“Thousands of people on the move again, fleeing strikes & military operations. The situation is impossible,” the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on X.
The Israeli military said dozens of militants had been killed in Khan Younis by its tanks and warplanes or in close-quarter combat. Weapon caches and tunnels used by the militants had been destroyed, it said.
Palestinian medics said one person was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the area on Tuesday. Gaza’s health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants. Health officials have said most those killed have been civilians.
Residents in Khan Younis said tanks continued to station deep inside the nearby town of Bani Suhaila. Soldiers were seen searching inside the main cemetery of the town, while others commandeered roofs of high-rise buildings, firing their guns toward the western areas from time to time, residents said.
In the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip, where six Palestinians were killed by an Israeli air strike on a house, some residents said they had received calls from Israeli security officers ordering them to leave their homes. Some families headed towards the Nuseirat camp to the west.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, additional reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan in Cairo, Editing by Angus MacSwan and Gareth Jones)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.