The China Mail - Israel army announces 'extensive ground operations' in ramped-up Gaza campaign

The announcement came just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled Israel was open to 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".

It said they had "eliminated dozens of terrorists, dismantled terrorist infrastructure... and are currently being deployed in key positions".

Israel says its ramped-up campaign aims to free hostages and defeat Hamas, but as the early operation's stages got underway Saturday, Israel and the group were entering indirect talks in Qatar aimed at hammering out a deal.

In a statement Sunday, Netanyahu's office said "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.

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

Since a two-month ceasefire collapsed 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 Saturday that the Doha talks had begun "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".

Speaking to troops in Gaza on Sunday, Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir pointed to the new operation starting, and said the military would "provide flexibility to the political echelon to advance any hostage deal".

"A hostage deal is not a halt, it is an achievement. We are actively working toward it," he added.

Air raid sirens sounded in southern Israel on Sunday afternoon, as the army said two projectiles were launched from Gaza, with one intercepted.

The military later issued an evacuation order for several parts of Gaza ahead of an attack, warning it would "launch a powerful strike on any area used for launching rockets".

- 'No one left' -

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

He said 22 people died and at least 100 others wounded in a pre-dawn 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 amid the wreckage.

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

The military said in a statement that over the past week the air force had conducted a "preliminary wave" of strikes, hitting "over 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations".

- 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 World Health Organization team last year that at least 10 children had starved to death.

The ministry also accused Israel Sunday of besieging the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, cutting off access 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.

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

A.Zhang--ThChM