Israel steps up Khan Younis assault while pressure mounts over two-state solution

Israel stepped up its assault on Hamas fighters in southern Gaza on Monday, sending terrified civilians fleeing from a designated safe zone, as international calls for a two-state solution intensified.

More than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s military campaign, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said before a day of intense diplomacy in Brussels that Israel’s campaign is “seeding the hate for generations.” European foreign ministers met with counterparts from Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as representatives of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Arab League.

Borrell pushed for a “two-state solution process” but said he knows that Israel has “a different stand.”

“Which are the other solutions they have in mind?” he asked, referring to the Israelis. “To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill … them?”

As he spoke, Israeli tanks advanced in and around the city of Khan Younis — the hometown of Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar — pushing westward toward the seaside area of al-Mawasi, designated by Israel as a humanitarian zone where people should seek refuge.

As fighting drew closer, some families in Mawasi packed up tents to flee further farther south. Cars and carts clogged roads leading to Rafah, near the Egyptian border, where more than one 1 million displaced people are already packed into every inch of free space.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed to The Washington Post that it still considered considers al-Mawasi a “safer zone.”

In Khan Younis, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra called the health situation “catastrophic and indescribable,” as one hospital was cut off and another was stormed. Israeli troops entered al-Khair Hospital in the city’s west and detained medical staff, according to the ministry.

The Post was unable to independently verify the report, and the IDF would not comment on the fighting around hospitals, saying only that it was carrying out operations in the city.

Nasser Hospital, the largest health facility still functioning in the south, was surrounded by Israeli forces, according to the ministry and journalists in the compound. , who said They reported that a mass grave had been dug for 40 bodies that could not be moved out of the compound.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had completely lost contact with teams in Khan Younis. As night fell, Gaza entered a “near total telecoms blackout” — the tenth 10th since the beginning of the war, according to Netblocks, the a cybersecurity monitoring group. Communications had just been restored on Friday after an eight-day blackout due to damaged cables.

As the fighting rages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in an escalating battle with Israel’s Western allies about the political future of the Palestinian territories. A Palestinian state is an “existential danger” to Israel, he reiterated Sunday, vowing to continue to oppose it as long as he is prime minister.

The notion of two states for two peoples is broadly supported in the international community, including by the United States, the E.U. and the United Nations.

“I think that we have to stop talking about the peace process and start talking more concretely about the two-state solution process,” Borrell said ahead of the meetings in Brussels, where he presented a 12-point plan to revitalize diplomatic talks.

The plan “aims to address the conflict and occupation that preceded the Gaza war and that, if left unaddressed, must be expected to lead to further wars,” according to a copy obtained by The Post.

“There is no credible comprehensive solution other than an independent Palestinian State living side by side with Israel, in peace and security, with full normalization and substantive development of security and economic cooperation between Israel, Palestine and the region,” it said. It called for the establishment of a “Preparatory Peace Conference” at “the earliest opportunity,” to discuss a lasting solution.

Middle Eastern countries represented in Brussels on Monday have also been working to end the conflict, with Saudi Arabia explicitly tying normalization of relations with Israel to a credible path to Palestinian statehood.

Ahead of the meetings, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz held up photos of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, saying he was in Brussels to discuss their return, as well as to build support for Israel’s efforts to dismantle Hamas.

He ignored questions about the possibility of a two-state solution, the Times of Israel reported.

Netanyahu on Sunday rejected what he said were conditions put forth by Hamas for the release of the more than 100 remaining hostages held in Gaza — including an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the strip. Agreeing to these terms and leaving Hamas in place in Gaza would be “a mortal blow to the security of Israel,” he said.

“Only total victory will ensure the elimination of Hamas and the return of all our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement, adding that he had emphasized his position in a call with President Biden over the weekend.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told relatives of hostages that the operation in Khan Younis is “in full swing” and that “there are preliminary indications that we have reached the most sensitive Hamas locations.”

Imad al-Samri, a 58-year-old Gaza resident who had sought refuge on the al-Aqsa University campus in Mawasi, described evacuating with his family on Monday morning as shells rained down on the university building.

Samri and his family, along with thousands of other displaced Palestinians at the university, fled toward the precarious safety of Rafah, seeking refuge in tents.

“This night could be one of the most difficult nights,” he said. “We barely escaped.”

During the early days of its assault on the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces demanded that residents move south into Khan Younis and Rafah for shelter. But Khan Younis is now the center of fighting, and Rafah is running out of resources as more and more desperate families arrive.

In another corner of Khan Younis, 31-year-old Muhammad al-Zarie, who was living with his brothers in a tent near the city center, spoke of the ceaseless echoes of strikes and shelling, resonating through the night and into the morning.

“We don’t know where we will go if they advance farther. Thousands of displaced people arrived in the morning, and there is no place for them in this camp,” he said.

“The army instructed us to head to al-Mawasi, and we are here, but this area is no longer safe.”

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Morris reported from Berlin, Rauhala from Brussels and Balousha from Amman, Jordan. Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv, Niha Masih in Seoul, Kate Brady in Berlin, Miriam Berger in Jerusalem, and Hajar Harb and Annabelle Timsit in London contributed to this report.