Israeli offensive turns to southern Gaza as hopes of reviving truce dwindle

Read the Full Transcript

• John Yang:

  Good evening, I'm John Yang. Tonight, hopes for another pause in the fighting in Gaza anytime soon have dimmed considerably. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his negotiators home from Qatar, saying the talks there had hit a dead end.

  Since fighting resumed at least 200 Palestinians have been killed bringing the death toll since October 7 that's more than 15,200. Those numbers from the Hamas run Gaza health ministry.

  Meanwhile, the focus of Israel's renewed aerial bombardment of Gaza has shifted from the north.

• John Yang (voice-over):

  In the southern Gaza City of Khan Younis, the streets are engulfed in smoke. The Israeli military has dropped leaflets urging residents of the city and the surrounding area to evacuate further south but beleaguered Gaza and say there's nowhere to go.

  They seek refuge wherever they can find it like this makeshift camp outside Al-Nasr hospital.

• Nihad Abu Habel, Displaced Gaza Resident (through translator):

  We fled the North before coming here. We went to various places. There's no safe place in Gaza.

• Abu Wael Nasrallah, Displaced Gaza Resident (through translator):

  Our houses are gone. Our property is gone. Our money is gone. Some died, some handicapped in the hospital. What is left to cry for and then they tell us we will get aid. Where is it?

• John Yang (voice-over):

  As the wounded fill Al Nasr hospital today that aid 50 trucks full according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society enter through the Rafah crossing along the Egyptian border. The first relief since the ceasefire ended Friday. Yesterday, Israel had blocked me from getting into Gaza.

  Since the fighting resumed the Israeli Defense Forces says it has struck more than 400 Hamas targets across Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the fighting would not stop until Israel meets its objectives.

• Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (through translator):

  We will continue the war until we achieve all its goals and it's impossible to achieve those goals without the ground operation. The ground operation was necessary to bring the results until now and it is necessary to bring the results moving forward.

• John Yang (voice-over):

  With hopes of a renewed ceasefire dissipating, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with reporters in Dubai, laying out the Biden administration's vision for peace.

• Kamala Harris, U.S. Vice President:

  Five principles guide our approach for post conflict. No forcible displacement, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, no reduction in territory and no use of Gaza as a platform for terrorism.

  We want to see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian voices and aspirations must be at the center of this work.

• John Yang (voice-over):

  Mark Regev, a top adviser to Netanyahu says Israel wants a security buffer zone inside Gaza to further separate it from Israel to ensure they will never be a repeat of the October 7 slaughter.

  Mark Regev, Senior Adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu: You won't have a situation in the future where you can have Hamas terrorists on the border, directly on the border position just to cross over and kill our people. Again, there will have to be security arrangements on the ground to prevent that from happening.

• John Yang (voice-over):

  In Tel Aviv and across Israel, thousands rallied demanding the release of the 136 hostages Israel says are still being held by Hamas. But Hamas leaders told Al Jazeera today that there would be no more hostages exchanged with Israel until the war is over.