Netanyahu of Israel said an agreement to free the hostages in Gaza may be approaching

As combat raged in the battered Palestinian enclave on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the relatives of hostages held in Gaza that an agreement that would ensure their release could be imminent, according to his office.

Israeli soldiers ordered people to leave certain areas they claimed were being utilized by Palestinian terrorists for recurrent attacks, but they persisted with their raid into the Khan Younis neighborhood in southern Gaza.

As Israeli airstrikes occurred, thousands of people fled for safer regions, according to U.N. officials.

Presently in Washington, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden later this week following his speech to Congress.

“There’s no doubt that the conditions are ripening for a deal,” he stated, addressing the families of hostages in the nation’s capital on Monday. This is encouraging.

Following a plan put out by Biden in May, months of negotiations spearheaded by Egypt and Qatar to bring Israel and Hamas to a truce had accelerated recently before stalling once more.

“Unfortunately, there will be phases to it; it won’t happen all at once. But I think we can move the accord forward,” Netanyahu remarked.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas leader, told Reuters that Netanyahu’s position was not novel.

“Netanyahu is still stalling and he is sending delegations only to calm the anger of Israeli captives’ families,” he stated.

On Thursday, a delegation from Israel was scheduled to reopen negotiations aimed at releasing hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons. During a week-long ceasefire in November, 240 Palestinian inmates were exchanged for the release of 105 hostages.

Two Egyptian security sources claim that Israel notified Egypt that a delegation from Israel would be arriving in Cairo on Wednesday night and that they would offer favorable responses to forward the negotiations for an accord.

According to Israeli counts, the hostages were abducted during the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion into southern Israel, during which around 1,200 people were murdered and 250 were captured.

Approximately one-third of the 120 hostages held by Hamas and other militants have had their status changed to “dead in absentia” by Israeli authorities.

According to Gaza health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, more than 39,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s military offensive since then.

HORROR AND DISAPPEARANCE

Tuesday saw Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Khan Younis in Gaza, sending people running as Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists engaged in combat in the city’s destroyed streets.

“Thousands of people are once again in motion, escaping military operations and strikes. The situation is unworkable,” UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, declared on X.

The Israeli military claimed that its tanks, jets, and close-quarters fighting had killed scores of militants in Khan Younis. It claimed that the militants’ tunnels and weapon stockpiles had been demolished.

One individual was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the area on Tuesday, according to Palestinian doctors. There is no distinction made between fighters and non-combatants by Gaza’s health ministry. According to health experts, the majority of the fatalities were people.

Tanks were reportedly still stationed deep within the neighboring village of Bani Suhaila, according to Khan Younis residents. Residents reported seeing soldiers investigating the town’s largest cemetery and others taking control of high-rise building roofs and occasionally shooting their weapons toward the western districts.

Some residents of the Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip reported that they had received calls from Israeli security personnel telling them to leave their houses after an Israeli airstrike killed six Palestinians inside a house. A few families made their way west to the Nuseirat camp.