Traumatized Palestinians were left to pick up the pieces of their homes after Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew most IDF troops from southern Gaza but promised they would return to invade Rafah, the last refuge for 1.4 million Gazans. displaced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a date had been set for an Israeli invasion of Rafah, without revealing that date as a new round of ceasefire talks take place in Cairo.
“Today I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo. We are constantly working to achieve our goals, first and foremost the release of all our hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
‘This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of terrorist battalions there. “It will happen, there is a date.”
An estimated 55% of the buildings in the Khan Younis area, around 45,000 buildings, have been destroyed or damaged, according to two mapping experts who have been using satellite images to track the destruction.
‘Where I sleep? Where I go?’ Heba Sahloul’s elderly mother sobbed desperately, sitting in the rubble of the family’s living room.
‘This victory requires entry into Rafah and the elimination of terrorist battalions there. It will happen, there is a date,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) said today.
Traumatized Palestinians have been left to pick up the pieces of their homes after Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew most IDF troops from southern Gaza.
It is estimated that 55% of the buildings in the Khan Younis area, around 45,000 buildings, have been destroyed or damaged.
Palestinians drive and walk through the destruction following an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis.
Netanyahu’s shock announcement came hours after reports suggested that Hamas and Israel were just two days away from agreeing on a ceasefire and hostage deal.
Her daughters looked for anything they could take with them. The walls of the room were blown away and the floor was littered with chunks of concrete, ceiling tiles, and broken countertops.
Sahloul said Israeli troops ordered them to withdraw during the fighting. “We left all our things here and left with just our clothes,” he said. Her father was killed earlier in the assault, leaving Sahloul, her sisters, and her mother behind. “There are only six women at home and we don’t know where to go,” Sahloul said.
A woman, who identified herself as Hanan to the Associated Press, climbed over collapsed concrete slabs atop a mountain of rubble from her home. Her son crawled on all fours to a hole beneath the rubble and twisted rebar, removing concrete blocks.
“There are no words to describe the pain inside me,” the woman said, her voice breaking. “Our memories, our dreams, our childhood here, our family… Everything is gone.”
Netanyahu’s shock announcement came hours after reports suggested that Hamas and Israel were just two days away from reaching a ceasefire and hostage-taking deal that would have put at least a temporary end to the bloodiest war in the world. Middle East in decades.
Hamas and Israel sent negotiators to Cairo, Egypt, where they were joined by mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
Palestinian families return to their homes, abandoned amid rubble and devastating destruction following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Khan Younis.
Protesters light a fire on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv.
Israeli soldiers organize the equipping of their tanks near the border with the Gaza Strip
State-linked Egyptian news outlet Al-Qahera reported that “significant progress was being made on several contentious points of the deal,” citing an unnamed senior Egyptian source.
The outlet said the Qatari and Hamas delegations had left Cairo and were expected to return “within two days to finalize the terms of the agreement.”
Delegations from the United States and Israel were also due to leave the Egyptian capital “in the next few hours” to hold consultations over the next 48 hours, he added.
But negotiations have been rocky during the six-month war in Gaza, with both Hamas and Israel pulling out of the talks over disagreements on several occasions.
Israel’s allies, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have expressed opposition to Israel’s stated plans to invade Rafah, home to 1.4 million civilians seeking refugees from the bloody war against the enclave.
Reports suggested that Hamas and Israel were just two days away from reaching a ceasefire and hostage agreement that would have put at least a temporary end to the bloodiest war in the Middle East in decades.
Israel’s main ally, the United States, has said invading Rafah would be a mistake and has demanded to see a credible plan to protect civilians.
Palestinians walk through the destruction following an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis.
Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron previously wrote in
“The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to bring in aid and remove the hostages, and then move towards a sustainable and permanent ceasefire.”
Israel’s main ally, the United States, has said invading Rafah would be a mistake and has demanded to see a credible plan to protect civilians.
Israel is purchasing 40,000 tents to prepare for the evacuation of Rafah, an Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
A woman cries in the rubble of a collapsed building after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Khan Younis, Gaza.
Israel withdrew its ground forces from the southern Gaza Strip, six months after the devastating war sparked by the October 7 attacks.
A person holds a handful of spent bullet casings over a larger pile in Khan Younis on April 7, 2024.
Netanyahu’s announcement came as streams of Palestinians poured into the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on Monday to salvage what they could from the vast destruction left behind by Israel’s offensive, a day after the Israeli army announced that it was withdrawing troops from the area.
Allowing people to return to Khan Younis could relieve some pressure on Rafah, but many have no homes to return to. The city is also likely filled with dangerous unexploded ordnance left behind by the fighting.
Israel’s military quietly withdrew troops in devastated northern Gaza early in the war.
But it has continued to carry out airstrikes and raids on areas where it says Hamas has regrouped, including Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa, leaving what the head of the World Health Organization called “an empty shell.”
Israel blames Hamas for the damage, saying it is fighting from civilian areas.