Hamas weighs Gaza truce as deadly fighting nears fifth month

Blinken set off Sunday on what is his fifth Mideast trip since the October 7attack by Hamas that set off the crisis.
He is expected to begin his trip on Monday in Saudi Arabia before visits toIsrael, Egypt and Qatar.
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said at least 127 people were killedin Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours in the territory.
The Hamas government media office said a kindergarten where families weresheltering was hit in the southern border city of Rafah, which is teemingwith Palestinians displaced by the war.
"There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, from north to south," displacedman Mohammed Kloub told AFP in Rafah, which according to UN figures now hostsmore than half of Gaza's population.
Israel has warned its ground forces could advance on Rafah as part of itscampaign to eliminate Hamas.
An AFP journalist reported strikes and tank fire on Khan Yunis, southernGaza's main city, with some air raids also hitting nearby Rafah.
Israel's army said its forces had raided a Hamas training facility in KhanYunis where militants prepared for the October 7 attack.
The Al-Qadisiya compound contained models of Israeli military bases, armouredvehicles, as well as entry points to kibbutzim, the army said in a statement.
During the raid, the army "neutralised" several militants, it said.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that at the nearby Al-Amal hospitalthere were "alarming signs (of) a humanitarian disaster... after 14 days ofcontinuous siege".
- 'Hitting them hard' -
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army had "destroyed 17 of24 (Hamas) battalions. Most of the remaining battalions are in the southernStrip and in Rafah, and we will deal with them."
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant meanwhile said: "The pressure on Hamasis working, they are in a very difficult situation and we are hitting themhard."
With the war set to enter a fifth month on Wednesday, international mediatorswere pressing to seal a proposed truce deal thrashed out in a Paris meetingof top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials.
French foreign minister Stephane Sejourne, on his first Middle East tour, methis counterparts in Egypt and Jordan, with Amman's foreign minister AymanSafadi saying "immediate international action" was needed "to stop the war inGaza".
Sejourne said he had told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of France'sdesire "for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and restarting talks for a...two-state solution".
A top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Saturday the group neededmore time to "announce our position" on the truce deal.
Hamdan added that Hamas wanted "to put an end as quickly as possible to theaggression that our people suffer".
A Hamas source has said the proposal involves an initial six-week pause thatwould see more aid delivered into Gaza and the phased release of Israelihostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
- Gaza rendered 'unlivable' -
The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel,which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians,according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also seized around 250 hostages, and Israel says 132 remain in Gazaincluding at least 27 believed to have been killed.
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive thathas killed at least 27,365 people in Gaza, mostly women and children,according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry.
Gazans have faced dire humanitarian conditions, and the UN agency forPalestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on social media platform X that "there isvery limited access to clean water and sanitation amid relentlessbombardment".
Experts and rights groups told AFP that Israeli forces have destroyedbuildings near the border in an attempt to create a buffer zone inside thePalestinian territory.
Israel has not publicly confirmed the plan, which Nadia Hardman, an expert onrefugees at Human Rights Watch, said "may amount to a war crime".
"We are seeing mounting evidence that Israel appears to be rendering largeparts of Gaza unlivable," she said.
Sejourne told his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry that he understoodCairo's concerns over "forced displacement" of Palestinians into Egypt fromthe Gaza Strip.
- 'Turmoil' across region -Concern for hostages still in Gaza and security failures surrounding theOctober 7 attack -- the deadliest in Israel's 75-year history -- have led tocriticism of Netanyahu and rallies against the government.
Michal Hadas, protesting in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, told AFP she fearedIsrael's leaders were dragging out the conflict for political reasons,"because as long as the war continues there will be no election".
The war has also sent regional tensions soaring, with a surge in attacks byIran-backed groups in solidarity with Gaza triggering counterattacks by keyIsrael ally the United States, reports BSS.
The United States and its partner Britain said they struck dozens of targetsin Yemen late Saturday in response to repeated attacks on shipping by Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
A Huthi spokesman said the latest wave of air strikes "will not pass withoutresponse and punishment".
Iran said the attacks "contradicted" US and UK statements on preventingregional escalation, and Hamas warned the strikes would bring "furtherturmoil" to the Middle East.