GAZA: Israeli forces continued attacks across the besieged enclave and killed at least 17 more Palestinians, including women and children, according to the strip’s health authorities.
According to the health ministry, strike in the Daraj neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City left one woman injured, health officials told reporters.
Yesterday, Israeli attacks killed 37 people in Gaza, including at least nine children.
Spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 35 people died in seven drone and air strikes across the enclave, while two others were shot dead in the Netzarim corridor while waiting for food aid. Three children were killed in a strike on a home in Jabalia, and at least six more died in northeast Gaza City near a school sheltering displaced families.
Israel orders evacuations in north Gaza as Trump urges end to war
The Israeli military ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas in northern Gaza before intensified fighting against Hamas, as US President Donald Trump called for an end to the war amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.
“Make the deal in Gaza, get the hostages back,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform early on Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to hold talks later in the day on the progress of Israel’s offensive. A senior security official said the military will tell him the campaign is close to reaching its objectives, and warn that expanding fighting to new areas in Gaza may endanger the remaining Israeli hostages.
But in a statement posted on X and text messages sent to many residents, the military urged people in northern parts of the enclave to head south towards the Al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis, which Israel designated as a humanitarian area. Palestinian and UN officials say nowhere in Gaza is safe.
“The (Israeli) Defense Forces is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of terrorist organizations,” the military said.
The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army’s bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.
In Khan Younis in the south, five people were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment near Mawasi, medics said.
The escalation comes as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, begin a new ceasefire effort to halt the 20-month-old conflict and secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages still being held by Hamas.
Interest in resolving the Gaza conflict has heightened in the wake of US and Israeli bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group had informed the mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks, but reaffirmed the group’s outstanding demands that any deal must end the war and secure an Israeli withdrawal from the coastal territory.
Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, only in a deal that will end the war. Israel says it can only end it if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
Frontman Liam O’Hanna, whose stage name is Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offense last month, for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah at a concert in November.
A map was included marking affected zones in northern Gaza.
“Israeli forces will operate with intense force in these areas,” Adraee said. “These military operations will intensify and expand… to destroy the capabilities of the terrorist organisations.”
The warning comes more than 20 months into the war with Hamas, as Israeli forces continue operations throughout Gaza. The order signals a likely escalation in northern sectors that have already faced heavy bombardment during earlier phases of the conflict.
Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly raised concerns about the safety and logistical feasibility of mass civilian evacuations under fire, particularly as Al-Mawasi is already overcrowded with displaced people.
66 children die of malnutrition
At least 66 children have died from malnutrition in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing military campaign and blockade, Gaza authorities.
The media office in Gaza accused Israel of committing a “war crime” by deliberately using starvation as a weapon against the civilian population.
In a strongly worded statement, the office described the deaths as “an ongoing crime against childhood in the Gaza Strip,” and denounced what it called “the shameful international silence regarding the suffering of children who are left to fall prey to hunger, disease, and slow death.”
Officials placed direct blame on Israel and its allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, saying all share responsibility for what they described as a humanitarian catastrophe.
The office called on the United Nations to immediately intervene and open crossings into Gaza to allow the delivery of food, medicine, and humanitarian supplies.
Hamas accuses Israeli PM of thwarting truce talks
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is proposing “impossible conditions” aimed at thwarting the possibility of reaching a ceasefire and captive-prisoner swap in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
Netanyahu is refusing to commit to components of the agreement he already approved in the past, Mardawi said on his Telegram channel.
The prime minister insists on releasing only 10 captives instead of freeing all in one phase, he added.
“Netanyahu is lying when he claims he is not involved in choosing the names of the hostages [to be released in the deal],” Mardawi wrote. “He does not want a deal.”
Gaza health system ‘obliterated’ as staff ‘swamped’ with mass casualties: Red Cross
Hisham M’hanna, the Gaza spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, has provided a snapshot of the massive challenges faced by healthcare workers in the besieged territory as Israeli attacks continue unabated.
“Since the resumption of hostilities on March 18, we haven’t witnessed one week without a report on an incident that happened or impacted a healthcare facility, a hospital, an ambulance team, or a doctor and nurse, including those who are on duty,” he told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
M’hanna said medical staff are “constantly subjected” to the impact of the fighting and “swamped” by the high numbers of people killed and wounded.
“Our field hospital in Rafah, which has only a 60-bed capacity, has been receiving since last month a large influx of mass casualties.”
“The vast majority of them are injured with gunshot wounds. Many of them have reported that they were attempting to reach the aid distribution sites in Rafah.”
M’hanna said the situation “has not only been exhausting” the workers’ capacity but also the hospital itself.
“For most of the days, the hospital is operating at nearly double its capacity, consuming its resources that are extremely limited and impacted by the restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid,” he added, noting that the field hospital is the only fully functional facility in Rafah and overall one of the best equipped in Gaza.
“That gives you a stark example of how deteriorated and obliterated the healthcare system is in Gaza.”
Settler violence in West Bank up 30pc this year: report
There have been 414 “nationalist crimes” committed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank so far this year, up from 318 during the same period last year, Al Jazeera reports citing Israeli Army Radio.
The crimes include arson, stone-throwing, vandalism, assaults, and other forms of “violent confrontations”, according to “security establishment data” cited by Army Radio.
A senior Israeli military officer said the settler crimes are not only growing, but also getting severe.
