Dozens killed in Israeli attacks as fighting rages in Gaza City | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

Residents of Gaza City have been ordered by the Israeli army to move to the centre of Deir el-Balah, which the UN says is already “overcrowded” with displaced Palestinians.

Despite new ceasefire negotiations, Israeli forces have increased their attacks on areas in the northern Gaza Strip.

At least 50 people were killed and dozens injured across the besieged coastal enclave in the last 24-hour reporting period, the Gaza Strip’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Israeli tanks have increasingly penetrated some districts of Gaza, such as Shujayea, Sabra and Tal al-Hawa. Residents have reported the heaviest fighting since the war began.

The armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said they had fought Israeli soldiers in Tal al-Hawa with anti-tank missiles and mortar shells, causing casualties. Residents of Gaza City reported “explosions and numerous exchanges of fire” and helicopter attacks on southwestern neighborhoods during the night.

The Israeli army is turning its attention to Gaza City after announcing that it has intelligence suggesting that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters are operating there.

Residents of Gaza City have now been told to move to the central district of Deir el-Balah, which the United Nations says is “already severely overcrowded with Palestinians displaced from other areas of the Gaza Strip.”

In the first weeks of the war, Israel had called on civilians in the north of the enclave to move south and declared the area a “security zone”, but later expanded its attacks there.

Maha Mahfouz fled Gaza’s Zeitoun neighborhood with her two children and many other Palestinians. She said her area was not included in the recent evacuation orders, but “we are panicking because the bombs and gunfire are very close to us.”

Women and children killed

An explosion at a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed seven people. Six people died in an attack on a house in al-Jalaa Street in northern Gaza City, and three others were killed in a bomb attack in nearby Lababida.

Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital, said 80 patients and wounded had been admitted from al-Ahli hospital. They had to be crammed into “every corner,” he said, as Gaza’s medical facilities were overwhelmed with wounded and struggling to maintain their capacity due to Israeli attacks and a lack of supplies.

“Many cases require urgent operations. Many have suffered direct gunshot wounds to the head and require intensive care. Fuel and medical supplies are running low,” he said.

He said the hospital also received 16 bodies, half of them women and children.

Mahmoud Bassal, a civil defense spokesman, said the military had shelled houses in Gaza City’s Jaffa neighborhood and that first responders “saw people lying on the ground and were unable to rescue them.”

In a situation report on Tuesday, the Israeli army said its forces had “eliminated dozens of terrorists and discovered numerous weapons” during their operations in Gaza City.

His soldiers continued to conduct raids “above and below ground” in the Shujayea neighborhood, it said.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed “appallment” at the recent mass evacuation orders as “civilians continue to be killed and injured.”

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 38,243 people have been killed and 88,033 injured in the Israeli war since October 7. The war began that day after Hamas attacked southern Gaza, killing at least 1,139 people and capturing dozens more.

Hassan Barari, professor of international affairs at Qatar University, said the scale of attacks on civilians was nothing new.

“These atrocities have been the hallmark of the Israeli operation in Gaza from the beginning,” he told Al Jazeera.

Ceasefire talks

As Israel intensifies its bombing of the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas and Israeli politicians are discussing a possible ceasefire with mediators.

But on Monday, Hamas warned that the increasing attacks would bring the talks back to “zero.” Its political chief Ismail Haniyeh said he had “urgently contacted” the mediators and warned of the “catastrophic consequences” of the deadly incursions.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spoke with the director of the US secret service CIA, William Burns, in Cairo on Tuesday about efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian presidential office said in a statement.

Burns and Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea will reportedly travel to Doha on Wednesday to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, a key mediator.

Barari said the first phase of the ceasefire proposal – six weeks without fighting – was crucial to giving the people of Gaza some sense of security and much-needed humanitarian assistance after nine months of relentless attacks.

“Continuing the war is not good for the Palestinians, but it is not good for the Israelis either. If the Israeli government succeeds in freeing the hostages, the motivation to continue the war will become less and less,” Barari said.

“I think this would be a wake-up call to Israeli society that it is time to end the war.”