Artillery fire pounded southern Gaza early on Wednesday as Israel said it had begun \u201cflooding Hamas tunnels\u201d and mediators sought a halt to the nearly four-month hostilities. The focus of the fighting in recent weeks has been Khan Yunis, the southern Gaza Strip\u2019s main city, where a constant barrage of air strikes and shelling rent the air all night. The health ministry recorded 125 deaths across southern Gaza in the latest Israeli strikes. United Nations agencies\u2019 chiefs said a bitter row over the main aid organisation for Palestinians could \u201chave catastrophic consequences for the people of Gaza\u201d. Major donors, including the United States and Germany, have suspended funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over accusations that several staff members were involved in the Oct 7 raids in Israel. Withholding the funds was \u201cperilous and would result in the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza\u201d, the heads of the UN agencies said in a joint statement. Meanwhile, mediation efforts gathered pace following a Sunday meeting of top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials that produced a proposed framework for a new truce and prisoner release. \u2018Constant fear\u2019 The Israeli army said on Wednesday its troops had killed 15 \u201cterrorists\u201d in northern Gaza, and captured 10 \u201cmilitants\u201d during an attack on a school where they were allegedly hiding. In Khan Yunis, where the Hamas media office said there were \u201cdozens of air raids\u201d overnight, vast areas have been reduced to a muddy wasteland of bombed-out buildings. According to witnesses, artillery shells hit the area of Nasser Hospital, the city\u2019s largest, where the UN humanitarian agency OCHA has said thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering. Eyewitnesses reported people fleeing Khan Yunis on Tuesday as explosions sounded nearby. \u201cWe left Nasser Hospital\u2026 under tank fire and air strikes. We didn\u2019t know where to go,\u201d said one woman. \u201cWe\u2019re out in the cold, left to fend for ourselves.\u201d The Palestinian Red Crescent said on social media platform X that \u201cIsraeli shelling and gunfire continue\u201d around another hospital in Khan Yunis. Staff and patients at the Red Crescent\u2019s Al Amal Hospital \u201cand thousands of displaced people, primarily children and women, live in constant fear and anxiety\u201d, it said. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and of using medical facilities as command centres, a charge denied by the Palestinian group. The Israeli military said it had begun \u201cflooding the tunnels\u201d with water in a bid to \u201cneutralise the threat of Hamas\u2019s subterranean network\u201d. Negotiations Qatar, which helped broker a previous truce and prisoner release in November, voiced hope an initial deal now being negotiated might lead to a \u201cpermanent ceasefire\u201d. A Hamas official said the group is \u201copen to discussing all issues, including prisoner exchange and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip\u201d. The official reiterated Hamas\u2019s demand for a comprehensive and complete cessation of Israel\u2019s aggression and the withdrawal of its troops from Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan\u00adyahu, whose office earlier called the negotiations \u201cconstructive\u201d, ruled out releasing \u201cthousands\u201d of Palestinian prisoners as part of any deal. \u201cI would like to make it clear\u2026 We will not withdraw the army from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists. None of this will happen,\u201d he said on Tuesday. A pro-Iran group in Iraq, Kataeb Hezbollah, said it would halt attacks on US \u201coccupation forces, in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government\u201d. The United States and Britain have also launched a campaign of air strikes against Yemen\u2019s Houthis, who have carried out repeated attacks on shipping in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The Houthis said on Wednesday they had fired \u201cseveral\u201d missiles at a US warship, hours after the US military said it had shot down another anti-ship missile over the vital trade route.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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