Intense clashes engulfed Gaza City on Monday as Hamas and Israel asserted their positions ahead of truce negotiations.
Israeli demonstrators gathered, urging a hostage release agreement.
Mediators from Egypt and Qatar were scheduled to facilitate new talks later this week amid the ongoing and deadliest Gaza conflict, now entering its 10th month.
In Gaza City, Israeli forces’ fighter jets and drones soared through the skies above the besieged region.
Thousands of civilians were on the move again in northern Gaza, while clashes rocked the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah in the conflict sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion on southern Israel.
Cairo and Doha have resumed diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting, aiming for an initial six-week cease-fire that would see some hostages in Gaza freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Talks would continue for a comprehensive deal to end the war.
Hamas has signaled it would drop its insistence on a “complete” cease-fire, a demand Israel has repeatedly rejected.
A top Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday that mediators had offered assurances “that as long as the negotiations continued, the cease-fire would continue.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office outlined its aims for the talks, stating in a release that “any deal will allow Israel to return and fight until all the war’s goals are achieved.”
Israel also seeks measures to halt weapons crossing the Egyptian border and restrict Hamas’ movement in Gaza, Netanyahu’s office said.
Netanyahu has vowed to achieve the twin goals of bringing home the captives and neutralizing Hamas.
His hard-right political allies have threatened to leave the government if he agrees to halt the fighting before then.
Evacuation order
The Israeli military on Monday reported more clashes in Gaza City and in the territory’s south, saying its troops had killed dozens of Hamas members and destroyed tunnels and rocket launch sites.
In Gaza City’s Shujaiya district, where battles have raged for nearly two weeks, it said it had “eliminated dozens” of Hamas members, including in airstrikes.
Thousands of Palestinians fled a new evacuation order for parts of Gaza City as Israeli troops and tanks again pushed into the Hamas-run territory’s largest city, according to witnesses and the civil defense agency.
The agency reported “dozens of martyrs and wounded” across Gaza, stating rescuers were unable to reach some areas due to intense fighting.
An airstrike on Sunday on a church-run school in Gaza City used as a shelter by displaced Palestinians killed at least four people, the civil defense agency said.
This came a day after a deadly attack on a U.N.-run school-turned-shelter in the central Nuseirat refugee camp.
A senior Hamas official on Monday accused the hawkish Israeli premier of intensifying combat and bombardment in Gaza to derail the latest truce effort.
“Whenever a round of negotiations begins and a breakthrough is within reach, he disrupts it all and escalates the aggression and massacres against civilians,” the Hamas official charged, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In Israel, large demonstrations demanding a hostage release deal were held on Saturday and Sunday in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with plans for further protests this week.
“Our message to the government is very simple,” said demonstrator Yehuda Cohen, father of kidnapped soldier Nimrod Cohen. “There is a deal on the table. Take it.”
Israel strikes Hezbollah
The latest Gaza conflict began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion on southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,195 people.
The group seized 251 hostages, with 116 still in Gaza.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,153 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the territory’s Health Ministry.
Israel has faced growing international outrage over the heavy toll on Gaza civilians brought by the war and a punishing siege on the coastal strip, home to 2.4 million people.
Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported Cairo would host Israeli and U.S. delegations in a new push in a monthslong effort toward a truce.
Mediators were in contact with Hamas amid “intensive Egyptian meetings this week with all parties,” it added.
Israeli media reported officials in Cairo talks would discuss humanitarian support for Gaza, including the fate of a key aid crossing in Rafah, shut since Israeli troops seized its Palestinian side in early May.
Israel said Friday it would also send negotiators to Qatar this week.
Washington deployed CIA chief William Burns to Cairo and then to Doha, according to reports and an official with knowledge of the talks.
Amid the Gaza war, Israel has exchanged near daily cross-border fire with Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, raising fears of all-out war.
On Saturday, Israel struck deep inside eastern Lebanon, killing a Hezbollah operative. The attack sparked major rocket barrages by the Iran-backed movement.
On Monday, the Israeli army reported again striking multiple Hezbollah targets overnight, including an arms depot and a flying object nearing Israel.
