Israel and Hamas at War, Day 310 | Hamas Wants Biden Plan for Truce Implemented, Residents Flee Khan Younis

Hamas on Sunday demanded the implementation of a plan presented by Joe Biden for a truce in Gaza “rather than conducting more negotiations”, at a time when residents are fleeing en masse Khan Younis, in the south of the territory, before new Israeli operations.

This call from the Palestinian Islamist movement comes the day after an Israeli raid on a school, considered one of the deadliest since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7 by an attack of unprecedented scale by Hamas on Israeli soil.

Despite international calls for a ceasefire, attempts by mediating countries – Qatar, the United States and Egypt – have failed repeatedly in recent months.

On May 31, the American president announced a plan, presented as coming from Israel, providing, in a first phase, for a six-week truce accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of hostages held in the Palestinian territory and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas called on mediators on Sunday evening to “present a road map” to “implement” this plan, “based on the vision of [président américain Joe] Biden and UN Security Council resolutions,” “rather than conducting more negotiations or bringing new proposals.”

A few days ago, the mediating countries had called for the resumption of talks on a truce in Gaza on August 15, associated with the release of the hostages. Israel has agreed, but Hamas has not clearly said whether it will participate.

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army called early Sunday on civilians to leave the area of ​​al-Jalaa, a northern district of the city of Khan Younis, already targeted by several major campaigns.

She claimed that Hamas had “established a terrorist infrastructure” there and that it was “preparing to carry out operations.”

“We are tired of being displaced 50 times,” sighs Saleh Ghaban, sitting in a makeshift vehicle, his meager belongings crammed inside.

“Torn bodies”

In Gaza City, relief efforts are still underway following an Israeli strike that, according to the Gaza Civil Defense, killed 93 Palestinians, including women and children, in a school housing displaced people, sparking an international outcry.

“It will take us another two days to identify the bodies that were torn to pieces,” said Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.

The Israeli army claimed that the school was used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad (another armed Palestinian movement) to “carry out attacks” against its soldiers, and claimed to have eliminated “at least 19 terrorists” there.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 – and which it considers a terrorist organisation along with the United States and the European Union – after the attack on its soil killed 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

Of the 251 people abducted, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army.

The Israeli retaliatory offensive in Gaza has left at least 39,790 dead, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry, which does not detail the number of civilians and fighters killed.

Israeli troops regularly return to areas from which they had withdrawn in the face of the resurgence of Palestinian fighter units. On Sunday, new bombings were carried out on Khan Younis.

According to AFPTV footage, Palestinians flocked to the city’s Nasser hospital after a strike, carrying bodies and wounded people dressed in blood-stained T-shirts.

In recent days, more than 75,000 people have been displaced in the southwest, according to the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Other areas in the centre and north of the besieged Palestinian territory were targeted overnight. At least two people were killed, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Three dead in Lebanon

Military escalation threatens in the region, where Israel’s enemies have opened several fronts against it, including Lebanese Hezbollah, which has been exchanging fire almost daily with the Israeli army on the Israeli-Lebanese border for more than ten months.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has urged the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its escorts to deploy more quickly to the region, the Pentagon reported on Sunday.

He also ordered the nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine USS Georgia to the same area, the source said.

Also on Sunday, Hezbollah announced that three of its fighters had been killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, including two on Sunday. The army said it had struck infrastructure of the pro-Iranian movement.

The situation has been even more explosive since the assassination on July 31 in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, attributed to Israel, and the death on July 30 of Hezbollah military leader Fouad Chokr, killed in a strike near Beirut claimed by Israel.

Iran and its allies have threatened Israel with a “severe” response.

In the occupied West Bank, where tensions have risen sharply, the Israeli army said that an Israeli civilian in his twenties had been killed in an attack by “terrorists”, still wanted, on vehicles.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who sits in the West Bank, will visit Russia from Monday where he is scheduled to meet Vladimir Putin.