Hamas terrorists battled Israeli forces trying to push into Gaza's largest refugee camp on Sunday, but despite the fighting US and Israeli officials said a deal to free some of the hostages being held in the besieged enclave was edging closer.
About 240 hostages were taken during Hamas's deadly cross-border rampage into Israel on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to invade the tiny Palestinian territory to wipe out its ruling Islamist group after several inconclusive wars since 2007.
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Israeli tanks and troops stormed into Gaza late last month and have since wrested control of large areas of the north northwest and east around Gaza City, the military says.
But Hamas and local witnesses say terrorists are waging guerrilla-style war in pockets of the densely urbanized north, including parts of Gaza City and the sprawling Jabalia and Beach refugee camps.
Video: IDF and ISA forces revealed a significant 55-meter-long terrorist tunnel / Credit: X/@idf
Even as fighting raged on the ground, Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, said in an interview on ABC's "This Week" that Israel was hopeful a significant number of hostages could be released by Hamas "in coming days".
Reuters reported on Nov. 15 that Qatari mediators had been seeking a deal between Israel and Hamas to exchange 50 hostages in return for a three-day ceasefire that would help boost emergency aid shipments to Gaza civilians, citing an official briefed on the talks.
At the time, the official said general outlines had been agreed but Israel was still negotiating details. On Sunday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told a press conference in Doha that the main obstacles to a deal were now "very minor", with mainly "practical and logistical" issues to surmount.
A White House official also said the "very complicated, very sensitive" negotiations were making progress.
"I believe we are closer than we have been in quite some time, maybe closer than we have been since the beginning of this process, to getting this deal done," White House deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told NBC's "Meet the Press". The delicate hostage talks coincide with Israel preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas to Gaza's southern half, signaled by increasing air strikes there on targets Israel sees as lairs of armed terrorists.
However, Israel's main ally the United States cautioned it on Sunday not to embark on combat operations in the south until military planners have taken into account the safety of fleeing Palestinian civilians.
Witnesses reported heavy fighting overnight on Sunday between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to advance into Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's camps with nearly 100,000 people.
Jabalia, a poor and crowded district that grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Israeli-Arab war, has come under repeated Israeli bombardment that has killed scores of civilians, Palestinian medics say. Israel says the strikes have killed many terrorists dug into the area.
On Sunday, 31 premature babies were evacuated from Al Shifa in a joint operation by the UN and Palestinian Red Crescent and will be taken over the southern Rafah border crossing to Egypt for hospitalization there, Gaza's health ministry said.
Eight premature babies previously died at Al Shifa for lack of electricity and medication crucial to care, it said.
Hundreds of other patients, staff, and displaced people who were sheltering in Al Shifa left on Saturday, with Palestinian health officials saying they were ejected inhumanely by Israeli troops and the military saying the departures were voluntary.
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