Star Metro - Israel army announces 'extensive ground operations' under ramped-up Gaza campaign

The announcement came just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled Israel was open to striking a deal with Hamas that involved "ending the fighting" in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The military said that over the past day, troops had "begun extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip", adding they had "eliminated dozens of terrorists, dismantled terrorist infrastructure... and are currently being deployed in key positions".

Israel says its ramped-up campaign is aimed at freeing hostages and defeating Hamas, but as the early stages of the operation got underway Saturday, Israel and the group were entering indirect talks in Qatar aimed at hammering out a deal.

In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu's office said that "the negotiation team in Doha is working to exhaust every possibility for a deal -- whether according to the Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting", referring to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in previous discussions.

Such a deal, according to Netanyahu's statement, "would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip".

Ever since a two-month ceasefire fell apart in March as Israel resumed its offensive, negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to reach a breakthrough.

Netanyahu has opposed ending the war without Hamas's total defeat, while Hamas has balked at the prospect of handing over its weapons.

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said on Saturday that the talks in Doha had kicked off "without any preconditions from either side".

A Hamas source familiar with the negotiations said that "Egyptian and Qatari mediators, along with the American side, are making efforts to bridge the gaps on the disputed issues".

- 'No one left' -

On the ground, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least 50 people had been killed Sunday "as a result of ongoing Israeli air strikes since the early hours".

He said 22 people were killed and at least 100 others wounded in a predawn attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip.

AFPTV footage showed people sifting through what was left of ruined shelters and rescuers treating the wounded.

"All my family members are gone. There is no one left," said a distraught Warda al-Shaer standing amid the wreckage.

"The children were killed as well as their parents. My mother died too, and my niece lost her eye."

There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military.

Israel's intensified assault comes as international concern has mounted over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza due to a blockade on aid imposed on March 2.

UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, said he was "alarmed" at the escalation and called for "a permanent ceasefire, now".

- Hospitals 'out of service' -

Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.

Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at Gaza's health ministry, told AFP that since the blockade began, "57 children have died in Gaza as a result of famine, but in the coming days, this number will increase due to the depletion of available food supplies".

AFP was not able to independently verify the figure.

The UN had warned of the risk of famine in Gaza long before the aid blockade was imposed, and doctors at Kamal Adwan hospital told a WHO team last year that at least 10 children had starved to death.

The ministry also accused Israel on Sunday of laying siege to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, cutting off the arrival of patients and staff, and "effectively forcing the hospital out of service".

With "the shutdown of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate are now out of service", it said.

Hamas's October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Hamas also took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

The Gaza health ministry said that at least 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,339.

L.Girard--SMC