Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in the rubble of a residential building destroyed in an lsraeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, July 3, 2024. /AP
Hamas said on Wednesday that it has consulted with the Qatari and Egyptian mediators to end the war in the Gaza Strip.
"We exchanged some ideas with the mediator brothers to stop the aggression against our Palestinian people," Hamas said in a press statement.
Israel's Mossad intelligence agency has received Hamas' response, according to a statement released on Wednesday by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office on behalf of Mossad.
The response, transferred by Egyptian and Qatari mediators with the backing of the United States, is currently under review by Israel. "Israel is examining the response and will communicate its reply to the mediators in due course," the statement noted.
Israeli media reported that the new Hamas response was the best given so far, saying it constitutes a basis for moving forward.
However, the outlets said that "some issues still need clarification, such as the (Israeli) presence in the Philadelphia axis (in Gaza) and the issue of prisoners."
Palestinians walk and drive past buildings destroyed during previous Israeli bombardment, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 3, 2024. /CFP
Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians were injured on Wednesday when an Israeli air strike targeted a residential house in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Palestinian sources said.
Palestinian security sources informed Xinhua that Israeli warplanes attacked a residential house near Naser Hospital and a school belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East without prior warning.
The attacked area was previously declared a safe zone by the Israeli forces, the sources added.
Medical sources at Naser Hospital told Xinhua that the "injured individuals arriving at the hospital have sustained moderate to severe wounds."
There was no immediate response from the Israeli army regarding this incident.
In a press statement on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said its operational activities continue throughout the Gaza Strip.
Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli military has killed 28 Palestinians and wounded 125 others, raising the total death toll to 37,953 and the number of injured to 87,266 since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict erupted in early October 2023, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Wednesday.
Smoke billows over hills in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after rockets were fired from southern Lebanon on July 3, 2024. /CFP
On the same day, Israel killed a senior commander in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the second top field leader killed in less than a month, and the group said it retaliated by firing scores of rockets at Israeli military positions near the border.
The Israeli military estimated that around 100 rockets were fired, and said there were no reports of casualties.
International diplomats are scrambling to prevent the near-daily clashes between Israel and Hezbollah from spiraling into an all-out war that could lead to a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, which is Hezbollah's main backer. Hezbollah says it will stop its attacks once Israel agrees to a ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A donkey cart is driven past mounds of garbage in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, northern Gaza City, July 3, 2024. /CFP
Bombardment in so-called safe areas
Andrea De Domenico, the head of the United Nations' (UN) humanitarian office for the Palestinian territories, said Gaza is "the only place in the world where people cannot find a safe refuge, and can't leave the front line." Even in so-called safe areas there are bombings, he told reporters on Wednesday in Jerusalem.
Most Palestinians seeking safety are either heading to a coastal area called Muwasi or the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, De Domenico said.
The Israeli military estimated at least 1.8 million Palestinians are now in the humanitarian zone it declared, covering a stretch of about 14 kilometers along the Mediterranean. Much of that area is now blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities with limited access to aid, UN and humanitarian groups say. Families live amid mountains of trash and streams of water contaminated by sewage.
It's been "a major challenge" to even bring food to those areas, De Domenico said. Although the UN is now able to meet basic needs in northern Gaza, he said it's very difficult getting aid into the south. Israel says it allows aid to enter via the Kerem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza, and blames the UN for not doing enough to move the aid.
The UN says fighting, Israeli military restrictions and general chaos, including criminal gangs taking aid off trucks in Gaza, make it nearly impossible for aid workers to pick up truckloads of goods that Israel has let in.
The amount of food and other supplies getting into Gaza has plunged since Israel's offensive into Rafah began two months ago, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine.
(With input from agencies)