More than 35 people have been killed in Israeli strikes and gunfire since the early hours of Saturday morning, hospital sources in Gaza say.
A strike on a house in central Gaza left at least 11 people dead – more that half of them women and children – according to officials at al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City.
Health workers said nine members of the same family were among those killed in an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, and at least six people are reported to have been killed while seeking aid in central and southern Gaza.
It comes a day after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations that Israel “must finish the job” against Hamas.
The Israeli air force says it has hit approximately 120 targets across the Strip since Friday – including, the military says, “buildings used by terror groups, terror operatives and other infrastructure”.
It is clear there has been no let up in Israel’s recent expanded ground offensive against Hamas, which is now mainly focused on Gaza City, where Israel says is the last stronghold of the armed group.
Hundreds of thousands of residents have fled the territory’s biggest urban centre, where a famine was confirmed last month by a UN-backed body. But hundreds of thousands more remain there in dire humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.
“They tell us go there, then come back here… People are in the streets, in the south scattered everywhere. Where should we go?” said Salwa Subhi Bakr, as quoted by AFP.
“What does the world want from us? What does Netanyahu want? What does Hamas want?” she said.
Several members of the Bakr family were killed during a strike on Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, the news agency reported, citing the Hamas-run civil defence agency.
While international calls for a ceasefire have redoubled – bolstered by multiple new recognitions of Palestinian statehood at the UN this week – Israel remains intent on maintaining maximum pressure on Hamas to try to force it into surrender.
That was the message once again from Prime Minister Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday, where many delegates walked out in protest as he took to the stage.
Donald Trump has once again expressed optimism about negotiating a deal that would see the hostages released and a new ceasefire in Gaza.
The US president said his team was close to achieving this goal, as what he called “very inspired and productive discussions” were being held with countries across the region.
Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, says that the US has come up with a new 21-point peace plan for the Middle East and Gaza.
It has not been formally presented, but various media reports have laid out what is said to be its key provisions.
These reportedly go beyond the release of all hostages, large numbers of Palestinian prisoners and an immediate ceasefire, to include what The Times of Israel says would be a pathway to a future Palestinian state.
But that is something Netanyahu strongly rejected in his address to the UN.
It has also been reported that the plan would enable Palestinians to remain in the Gaza Strip, rather than encourage many to leave.
Such provisions – if they are confirmed – are certain to be talking points when Trump meets Netanyahu on Monday. The US leader’s optimism may receive a reality check at that meeting.
The Times of Israel – which says it had seen a copy of the US proposal – says that it also includes a commitment for Hamas to disarm, as well as the full demilitarisation of Gaza and the establishment of a process to de-radicalise the population.
It is clear that both Hamas and the Israeli government would have to make greater concessions than they have so far committed themselves to, if the plan as it has been reported so far is to have any chance of success.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 65,549 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Foreign journalists have been banned from entering Gaza independently since Israel launched its 2023 offensive following the Hamas 7 October attacks.
With the two-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel just over a week away, there are many in Israel and Gaza who will be fervently hoping that that they will not have to live through a third year of the war.
