Hamas demands truce roadmap

US military team has been ordered to speed up its arrival in the Middle East as Palestinians fled a new ­Israeli military operation.

People look for salvageable items in the rubble of a building destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood on August 11, 2024. Picture: AFP

Hamas urged Gaza mediators to implement a truce plan presented by US President Joe Biden instead of holding more talks, as Palestinians fled a new ­Israeli military operation.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered an aircraft carrier group to speed up its arrival in the Middle East as mounting tensions raise fears of a region-wide war.

Mr Austin ordered the aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, and equipped with F-35 fighters, to “accelerate its transit” to the region, the Pentagon said on Monday AEST.

He also ordered the USS Georgia guided missile submarine to the area.

Hamas said at the same time that it wanted the implementation of a truce plan laid out by Mr Biden on May 31 “rather than going through more negotiation rounds or new proposals”.

Unveiling the plan, Mr Biden had called it a three-phase “roadmap to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages”, and said it was an Israeli proposal. Mediation efforts since then have failed to produce an agreement.

The statement from the Palestinian group, whose October 7 ­attack on Israel triggered the war, came a day after one of the deadliest reported Israeli strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip in more than 10 months of war.

International mediators had invited Israel and Hamas to ­resume talks towards a long-sought truce and hostage-release deal, after the fighting in Gaza and the killings of Iran-aligned militant leaders sparked fears of a wider conflict.

Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of prolonging the war for political gain, has accepted the ­invitation from the US, Qatar and Egypt for a round of talks planned for Thursday.

In Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city already ravaged by months of bombardment and battles, hundreds of Palestinians have fled northern neighbourhoods after Israel issued fresh evacuation orders.

A Palestinian girl sits next to household belongings as she prepares to flee the Hamad residential district and its surroundings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip after receiving a warning from the Israeli army to evacuate the area. Picture: AFP

The military dropped leaflets and sent mobile phone messages warning of “dangerous combat” in al-Jalaa district and telling Palestinian residents to leave the area, which until Sunday had been designated a humanitarian safe zone.

Similar evacuation orders have preceded major military incursions, often forcing Palestinians displaced numerous times by the war to pack up and leave.

The military said in a statement its forces were “about to ­operate against the terrorist organisations in the area”.

Civil defence rescuers in the Hamas-run territory said an Israeli airstrike on Saturday had killed 93 people at a school housing ­displaced Palestinians, sparking international condemnation.

Israel said it targeted militants operating out of Gaza City’s al-Tabieen school and mosque with “precise munitions”, declaring that “at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were eliminated”.

Hamas cited the Israeli “massacre against the displaced at al-Tabieen school” and “our responsibilities towards our people and their interests” as the reasons for its announcement.

The Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of about 1200 people, mostly civilians.

Militants also seized 251 ­people, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military ­offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,790 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.

Under Mr Biden’s plan, the first phase of the proposed roadmap includes a “full and complete ceasefire” lasting six weeks, with Israeli forces withdrawing from “all populated areas of Gaza” and some hostages freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The second phase would see the remaining living hostages ­released as the warring sides negotiate “a permanent end to hostilities”, followed by “a major reconstruction plan for Gaza” and the return of dead hostages’­ ­remains.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that “just in the past few days, more than 75,000 people have been displaced in southwest Gaza”, where Khan Younis is located.

The entire Gaza Strip has a population of about 2.4 million people.

AFP