Israel launches ground operation into central Gaza refugee camp

     Deir al-Balah (Gaza Strip), Jun 4 (AP) The Israeli military said Tuesday that ground troops backed by airstrikes have launched an operation in central Gaza's Bureij refugee camp.
     Local hospital officials say a strike on a home in the camp killed 11 Palestinians, including three children and one woman. A strike on another house in the neighbouring Maghazi refugee camp killed two men, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken.
     The extent of the Israeli incursion into Bureij camp was not immediately clear as of Tuesday evening. The military said in a statement that it was conducting “a precision operation” in the camp targeting Hamas positions.
     Israeli forces have been battling militants in parts of Gaza that the army said it wrested control of months ago — potential signs of a simmering insurgency.
     The military waged an offensive earlier this year for several weeks in Bureij and several other nearby refugee camps in central Gaza.
     Troops pulled out of the Jabaliya camp in northern Gaza last Friday after weeks of fighting caused widespread destruction. First responders have recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, killed during the battles.
     Israel has also been expanding its nearly month-old ground offensive in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah. More than 1 million Palestinians have fled Rafah, mostly into tent camps that have arisen across central and southern Gaza.
     Refugee camps in Gaza originally housed Palestinians who were driven from their homes in what is now Israel in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's founding. Over the decades since, they have been built up into crowded urban districts.
    
     A PERMANENT CEASE-FIRE MUST BE PART OF ANY DEAL WITH ISRAEL, HAMAS OFFICIAL SAYS
     BEIRUT — A senior official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas said it will not accept any deal with Israel that does not clearly lay out a permanent cease-fire and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
     Osama Hamdan said Hamas has told mediators that it was “waiting for an Israeli response regarding this matter.” Speaking Tuesday to reporters in Beirut, he said that Israel is seeking to bring the hostages held by Hamas out of Gaza, then resume the war there.
     Hamdan's comments came days after a cease-fire proposal, announced by US President Joe Biden, offers the possibility of ending Israel's war against Hamas, returning scores of hostages held by the militant group and quieting fighting on the northern border with Lebanon.
     A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar said Tuesday that Qatar and the other mediators, Egypt and the US, were still waiting for a response from both Israel and Hamas to the proposal. Majid al-Ansari said “clear ideas” had been put to the two sides, but “we do not have clear positions on it from both sides.”
     The Qatari spokesman pointed to disputes within the Israeli government, where ultra-nationalist allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have threatened to bring down the governing coalition if he signs onto a deal without destroying Hamas. Netanyahu says the deal includes provisions that ensure that goal — although none were publicly stated in Biden's announced outline.
     Al-Ansari said the “principles (of the proposal) bring together the demands of all parties”.
     Hamdan said Hamas described Biden's announcement as “positive”.
     “We cannot accept an agreement that does not guarantee and confirm a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal from Gaza followed by an (prisoners) exchange,” Hamdan said. “This is what we want as Palestinians, and any Israel ideas that contradict this do not concern us and have no value.”
     Hamdan said that there are thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails adding that any deal should lead to their release. Around 80 hostages captured by Palestinian militants on Oct 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others.
    
     SENIOR BIDEN ADVISER HEADING TO MIDEAST THIS WEEK, US OFFICIAL SAYS
     WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden is dispatching a senior adviser, Brett McGurk, back to Mideast this week for talks on the hostage for truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas as well as to discuss about the situation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to a US administration official.
     The official requested anonymity to discuss the yet to be publicly announced travels for McGurk, the White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
     McGurk has been shuttling between Washington and Mideast capitals throughout the nearly eight-month Israel-Hamas war for talks with key regional stakeholders.
     This visit comes after a new cease-fire proposal was transmitted to Hamas last week. The Israeli plan could immediately bring home dozens of Israeli hostages, free Palestinian prisoners and perhaps even lead to an endgame in the war.
     White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that Hamas has yet to offer its formal response to the proposal.
     McGurk is also expected to discuss Israel's ongoing military operations in Rafah with regional leaders.
     Israel launched its ground assault into the city on May 6, triggering an exodus of around 1 million Palestinians out of the city and throwing UN humanitarian operations based in the area into turmoil.
     Still, in the eyes of the Biden administration, it has yet to amount to a “major operation”. The UN humanitarian office reported Monday that only about 100,000 Palestinians are still in the city of Rafah.
    
     WHITE HOUSE ADVISER JAKE SULLIVAN MEETS WITH FAMILIES OF AMERICAN HOSTAGES IN GAZA, US OFFICIAL SAYS
     WASHINGTON — White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met on Tuesday with families of Americans that are being held hostage in Gaza, according to an administration official.
     The meeting comes as Biden is pressing Israel and Hamas officials to accept a three-phase hostage for truce deal and potentially end the eight-month war in Gaza. The official was not authorised to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
     Israeli officials say about 80 people captured by militants in the Oct 7 attack are still alive and Hamas is holding the bodies of 43 others.
     Sullivan has periodically met and held calls with families of the American hostages throughout the nearly eight month crisis.
     President Joe Biden in an interview with Time magazine published Tuesday said that he still believes Americans being held are alive, but acknowledged that US officials “don't have final proof on exactly who's alive”.
     Hundreds of people, including relatives of the captives, gathered outside Israel's Defence Ministry and military headquarters in central Tel Aviv late Monday, calling for a hostage release deal. Smaller protests took place across the country.
    
     360 BODIES RECOVERED FROM JABALIYA REFUGEE CAMP IN NORTHERN GAZA AFTER LATEST ISRAELI OFFENSIVE
     CAIRO — A spokesman for Gaza's civil defence says first responders recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, killed in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya during a three-week Israeli offensive there.
     Satellite photos showed extensive new damage in Jabaliya from the offensive, which ended with Israeli troops pulling out on Friday. The photos — taken by Planet Labs PBC on May 8 before the assault and on June 1 — showed that the camp's main marketplace had been destroyed and in several places entire blocks had been wiped away.
     The Israeli military launched the assault on Jabaliya in early May, saying it was targeting Hamas militants who had regrouped there after repeated previous offensives in the densely built district.
     The military said the assault saw tough close-quarters fighting with Hamas militants during which it carried out some 200 airstrikes. At the operation's end, the military said it had destroyed 10 km (6 miles) of underground tunnels and other Hamas infrastructure. Troops also found the bodies of seven hostages.
     Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Palestinian Civil Defence, said Tuesday that 360 bodies had been found so far buried under rubble or strewn in the streets. Some were retrieved while the offensive was ongoing and others after the Israeli withdrawal on Friday.
     He estimated around two-thirds of the bodies were women and children. Among them were 30 people killed from one extended family, the Asaliya, including 22 women and children, he told The Associated Press. He said the search for bodies was still underway.
     Jabaliya camp originally housed Palestinians who were driven from their homes in what is now Israel in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's founding. Over the decades since, it has been built up into a crowded urban district. (AP) SCY
SCY

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)