ABC / Reuters | 23 January 2024
Families of Israeli hostages have interrupted a parliamentary committee session in Jerusalem, demanding politicians do more to try to free their loved ones.
One woman held up pictures of three family members held in Gaza: “Just one I’d like to get back alive, one out of three!” she cried after pushing into the Knesset Finance Committee discussion on Monday (local time).
Roughly 20 protesters, clad in black T-shirts, held up signs reading: “You will not sit here while they die there.”
“Release them now, now, now!” they chanted.
A statement released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the day said he had told representatives of the group that Hamas did not have an offer on the table when it came to releasing hostages.
“There is no real proposal by Hamas. It’s not true,” the statement quoted Mr Netanyahu as telling the group.
“I am saying this as clearly as I can because there are so many incorrect statements which are certainly agonising for you.
“Conversely, there is an initiative on our part, on which I shall not elaborate.”
Khan Younis under siege
The storming of western parts of Khan Younis is the culmination of a battle that Israeli officials have depicted as their last large-scale ground assault before they shift to more targeted operations to eradicate Hamas, which still holds more than 100 people hostage.
Israeli forces have stormed a hospital and placed another under siege in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, potentially cutting wounded civilians off from medical care, Palestinian officials said on Monday.
IDF soldiers advanced deep into the west of the city, reaching the al-Mawasi district near the Mediterranean coast, officials said.
There, they entered the Al-Khair hospital and were arresting medical staff, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qidra told the Reuters news agency.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said tanks had also surrounded another Khan Younis hospital, al-Amal, where the rescue agency’s headquarters are located.
Mr Qidra said at least 50 people had been killed overnight in Khan Younis, while the siege on medical facilities meant dozens of dead and wounded were beyond the reach of rescuers.
“The Israeli occupation is preventing ambulance vehicles from moving to recover bodies of martyrs and the wounded from western Khan Younis,” he said.
The Israeli military made no mention of the fighting in Khan Younis in a morning update, giving details of combat only in other areas.
The Israeli military spokesperson’s office also had no immediate comment on the situation at either hospital.
Israel says Hamas fighters operate from in and around hospitals in Gaza, which Hamas and medical staff deny.
“Hamas embeds its operation within and under hospitals and other medical facilities,” said Elad Goren of COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry branch that coordinates with the Palestinians.
“A particular effort led by a dedicated team has been put on making sure that civilians have access to medical care.”
War’s latest phase brings fighting deep into Gaza
Residents said southern Gaza was experiencing the most intense air, land and sea bombardment since the war began in October, as Israeli tanks surged across Khan Younis from the east towards the Mediterranean coast.
Video filmed from afar showed civilians wandering a ghost city, crowded with tents with abandoned laundry flapping on lines, as gunfire rattled and columns of smoke rose into the sky.
Israel launched an offensive last week to capture Khan Younis, which it now says is the principal headquarters of the Hamas militants responsible for the October 7 terror attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people.
The newest phase of the war has brought fighting deep into the corners of the Gaza Strip that are now packed with civilians who fled Israel’s initial bombardment.
The majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now penned into Rafah, just south of Khan Younis, and Deir al-Balah, just north of it, where they are crammed into public buildings and vast camps of tents made from plastic sheets lashed to wooden frames.
At least 25,295 Gazans have been killed since October 7, Gaza health authorities said in an update on Monday.
Sami al-Zuhri, head of Hamas’s political unit in exile, told Reuters that Hamas was open to “all initiatives and proposals, but any agreement must be based on ending the aggression and the occupation’s complete withdrawal” from Gaza.