GAZA: The Zionist army pushed on Sunday with its campaign in southern Gaza to destroy Hamas as prospects dimmed for a ceasefire in the more than four-month-old war. A total of 127 people died in 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said, as the main battlefront edged closer to far-southern Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians live in crowded shelters and tent camps.

The Zionist entity’s top ally the United States signaled it would veto the latest push for a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, as Washington instead favors a temporary truce and captive release deal. And mediator Qatar acknowledged that separate ceasefire talks had also hit an impasse after Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected some Hamas demands as “ludicrous”.

The Zionist entity has concentrated its military operations in Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar. Netanyahu vowed Saturday the ground invasion of Rafah would go ahead, arguing that failing to launch it would mean to “lose the war”.

The military says it is working to move civilians from the area to minimize casualties, but has not revealed the exact details of its evacuation plan.

Netanyahu’s government also rejected pressure from some Western governments that would aim for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. The government later unanimously approved a declaration that said “(the Zionist entity) utterly rejects international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. A settlement, if it is to be reached, will come about solely through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions.”

Latest strikes and fighting killed at least 10 people in Rafah and in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah overnight, said the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. At the morgue of a Rafah hospital, mourners bent down to give a final kiss to a loved one wrapped in a white body bag. “That’s my cousin — he was martyred in Al-Mawasi, in the ‘safe area’,” said Ahmad Mohammed Aburizq. “And my mother was martyred the day before. “There’s no safe place. Even the hospital is not safe.”

The Zionist entity’s bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza have killed at least 28,985 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry. In Tel Aviv, thousands took to the streets Saturday against Netanyahu’s government, accusing it of abandoning the captives and calling for immediate elections. “Take politics out of decisions about our loved ones’ lives,” demanded Nissan Calderon, brother of hostage Ofer Calderon. “This is the moment of truth. There won’t be many more like it if the Cairo initiative collapses.”

Next week’s possible Security Council vote appears unlikely to advance the ceasefire effort, with Washington already voicing opposition. “The United States does not support action on this draft resolution,” said US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. “Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted.” Algeria’s draft resolution seeks an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, but Thomas-Greenfield said the United States instead supports a truce-for-captives deal that would pause fighting for six weeks.

US President Joe Biden had “multiple calls” with Netanyahu as well as Egyptian and Qatari leaders this week “to push this deal forward”, she said. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani called those talks “not very promising”. He said the efforts had been complicated by the insistence of “a lot of countries” that any new truce involve further releases of hostages.

Hamas has threatened to suspend its involvement in the talks unless relief supplies reach Gaza’s north, where aid agencies have warned of looming famine. “Negotiations cannot be held while hunger is ravaging the Palestinian people,” a senior source in the Palestinian militant group told AFP. The head of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA in the Palestinian territories, Andrea De Domenico, said he had “no idea” how an estimated 300,000 people still in Gaza’s north had survived.

The Zionist entity’s military on Sunday said troops in Khan Yunis are still operating “in the Nasser Hospital” and adjacent to it. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said Zionist troops had turned Nasser Hospital “into a military barracks”. He said one more person had died due to lack of oxygen because power has been out for three days, bringing the total of such deaths to seven. – AFP