GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces pounded areas in northern and southern Gaza on Wednesday (Jan 31) after Hamas said it had received and was studying a new proposal for a ceasefire and release of hostages held in the Palestinian enclave.
The proposal, presented to the Palestinian militant group by mediators after talks with Israel, appeared to be the most serious peace initiative for months in the Israel-Hamas war.
World powers hope to prevent a wider conflict, but tensions in the Middle East remained high after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels said they would keep attacking US and British warships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians.
Relations between Tehran and Washington are also tense after the deaths of three US soldiers in a drone strike in Jordan that US officials blame on Iran-backed militants. Washington has not yet outlined its response, but Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday they would respond to any US threat.
Gaza health authorities said 26,900 Palestinians had been killed - including 150 over the past 24 hours - in the war that was triggered after Hamas fighters stormed from Gaza into Israeli towns on Oct 7 killing 1,200 and taking 253 hostages.
In the latest fighting, Israel bombarded parts of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, districts of Gaza City in the north, and areas in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, residents said.
Witnesses said tanks pummelled areas around Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest hospital still functioning in southern Gaza.
To get better access to the frontlines, Palestinian medics say they have formed field medical points, as reaching the fallen and the wounded in Khan Younis has become increasingly difficult amid street battles and artillery strikes.
"There's a lot of injuries among the displaced who were in the industrial quarter and some schools," said the Head of the Emergency Unit at Nasser Hospital, Nassim Hassan, "many of the injured left loaded on carts, tuk-tuks, cars or even on foot".
A large number of displaced families have been sheltering in a warehouse-like building at the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, cowering in fear as gunfire rattles outside, video from the Palestine Red Crescent Society showed.
The Red Crescent said on Tuesday Israeli forces had stormed the hospital and asked displaced people and staff to evacuate at gunpoint. An Israeli military spokesperson denied this.
Israel's military said its forces had killed at least 25 Palestinian militants in Gaza in the past 24 hours, and that three Israeli soldiers had been killed in battle. Some 224 Israeli troops have now been killed during the ground offensive.
THREE-STAGE TRUCE
A senior Hamas official told Reuters the Gaza ceasefire proposal involved a three-stage truce, during which the group would first release the remaining civilians among hostages it captured on Oct 7, then soldiers, and finally the bodies of hostages that were killed.
The ceasefire proposal followed talks in Paris involving intelligence chiefs from Israel, the United States and Egypt, with the prime minister of Qatar. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said he was going to Cairo to discuss it.
Much of the densely populated Gaza Strip has been devastated by almost four months of Israeli bombardment, and most of its 2.3 million residents have been uprooted by fighting that international aid agencies say has caused a humanitarian crisis.
"Any ceasefire that doesn't end the war and return us to our homes in Gaza City and the north is not worth it," Ahmed, a father of six who fled his home in Gaza City for Rafah in the south, said by telephone. "We are exhausted."
But, in a reminder of the huge gap in the public stances of the warring sides over what it would take to halt combat even temporarily, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his vow not to pull troops out of Gaza until "total victory".
Israel says it will not stop fighting until Hamas is eradicated. Hamas says it will release its remaining captives only as part of a wider deal to end the war permanently.
REGIONAL TENSIONS
The conflict has triggered concern of an escalation in an already tense region.
The US and Britain have carried out strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen over the group's attacks on Red Sea shipping, and returned the militia to a list of terrorist groups.
But the Houthis' military spokesperson said on Wednesday the group would continue what it called acts of self defence, stoking fears of long-term disruptions to world trade.
With tensions also high over Saturday's drone attack on US service members in Jordan, the US says it has decided how to respond but has not said how.
Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah has said it is suspending all its military operations against US troops in the region. But Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami remained resolute on Wednesday, saying "no (US) threat will be left unanswered".