The news comes hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is willing to reach a deal with Hamas, involving “end of the fight” in besieged Palestinian territory.
The military said over the past day, the troops “started extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip,” adding that they “eliminate dozens of terrorists and demolish terrorist infrastructure… are currently being deployed in key locations.”
Israel said its evolving movement aims to free hostages and defeat Hamas, but with the early stages of Saturday’s action, Israel and the group are participating in indirect negotiations in Qatar to finalize a deal.
“Doha’s negotiating team is working to exhaust all the possibilities of deals – whether based on the Witkoff framework or part of the end of the fight,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Sunday, referring to the U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who participated in previous discussions.
According to Netanyahu’s statement, such deals “including the release of all hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists and the disarmament in the Gaza Strip”. Failed, and Hamas refused to hand over the prospect of weapons.
Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, said on Saturday that the talks in Doha had “no premise”.
“Egypt and Kathari mediators and the U.S. are working to bridge the gap in disputes,” a Hamas source familiar with the negotiations said.
‘No one left’
On the ground, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least 50 people were killed on Sunday, “because the Israeli air strikes have been due to ongoing air strikes since the early hours of the morning.”
He said in the tents in al-Mawasi in southern Canada, 22 people were killed and at least 100 were injured in tents that avoided displaced Palestinians.
AFPTV footage shows people screening the remaining shelters and rescuers for the screening of the injured.
“All my family is gone. No one is left.” A distraught Warda al-Shaer stood among the wreckage.
“The children were killed like their parents. My mother died, and my niece lost her eyes.”
There was no immediate comment on the Israeli military strike.
Israel’s intensified attacks were due to the worsening of humanitarian situation in Gaza on March 2 and international attention was intensified.
Addressing the Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, UN Chief Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” when he upgraded and called for “a permanent ceasefire now.”
The hospital “failed”
As UN agencies warn that Israel faces increasing pressure on aid lockdown.
Marwan Al-Hams, director of the Field Hospital of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told AFP that since the lockdown began, “57 children died in Gaza due to famine, but in the next few days this number will increase due to the depletion of available food supplies.”
AFP was unable to verify the number independently.
The United Nations has warned of the risk of famine in Gaza long before the aid lockdown was imposed.
The ministry also accused Israel of besieging Beit Lahia’s Indonesian hospital on Sunday, cutting off the arrival of patients and staff and “effectively forcing the hospital to stop services.”
It said that with the closure of Indonesian hospitals, all public hospitals in Northern Gaza Province are now shut down.
According to official figures, the October 2023 attacks in Hamas triggered war, causing the war to kill 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mainly civilians.
Hamas also took hostages 251 times during the attack, 57 of whom remained in Gaza, including 34 of which the military said were dead.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed its strike on March 18, with the overall loss of the war being 53,339.
