Israeli planes carried out strikes across the enclave on Friday, killing at least 35 Palestinians, the Gaza health ministry said.
Thousands of people fled eastern Khan Younis in vehicles and on foot, belongings heaped on donkey carts and motorcycle rickshaws as they made their slow escape along congested roads.
Workers bury bodies returned by Israel in a cemetery in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip. (AP PHOTO)
With Israel and Lebanon braced for a possible escalation in fighting, leaders from the United States, Egypt and Qatar tried to revive efforts to halt the fighting in Gaza, scheduling a new round of talks for Thursday.
In recent weeks Israeli forces which swept into nearly the entire Gaza Strip over more than ten months of war have been returning to the ruins of areas where they said they had defeated Hamas fighters, while warning that they might regroup.
In the latest assault, the military dropped leaflets ordering residents and displaced people sheltering in eastern Khan Younis, Gaza's main southern city, to evacuate from an area that has already seen repeated waves of fighting.
Families packed into buses and cars, many seeking shelter in Al-Mawasi, a sandy stretch of ground along the coast, though some expressed fear over attacks there even though it is designated as a safe zone by Israeli forces.
Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike killed six Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, medics said. Another strike on a house nearby killed four people, including a girl, and wounded several others, they added.
The Israeli military said troops hit dozens of Hamas targets in Khan Younis and Rafah close to the Egyptian border, seizing arms depots, destroying infrastructure and killing dozens of fighters armed with weapons including rocket propelled grenades.
The meeting called for Thursday to discuss a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal follows previous talks that have failed to yield a ceasefire since a single week-long truce in November 2023.
Israel's prime minister's office said a delegation would be sent to the talks but declined to give further details. A Hamas official told Reuters the group was "studying" the new offer for talks, refusing to elaborate. The newly appointed overall leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, is believed to run the battle, possibly from the tunnels of Gaza.
In a statement, the Hamas armed wing vowed loyalty to Sinwar in a show of challenge to Israel, which puts Sinwar on the top of its marked-for-death officials.
Pursuant to the proposal by the US and the mediators, Israel will – on 15 August – send the negotiations team to a place to be determined in order to finalize the details of the implementation of the framework agreement.— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) August 9, 2024
Fears are growing of a possible broader conflict. Iran has vowed to retaliate after Hamas's leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran and Israel killed a top commander of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a strike on a Beirut suburb.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza aiming to wipe out Hamas after the group's fighters attacked Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to figures from health officials in the enclave, who say thousands of others are feared dead under the rubble.
