Palestinians transport their belongings as they flee areas north of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2024. In recent days, the military has launched an intense ground and air assault in northern Gaza, particularly in and around the city of Jabalia.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Israeli forces widened their raid into northern Gaza, and tanks reached the north edge of Gaza City, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, residents said, forcing many families to leave their homes.

Residents said Israeli forces have effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia, and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the enclave from Gaza City, blocking access between the two areas except upon their permission for families willing to leave the three towns, heeding evacuation orders.

Gaza’s health ministry said the eight-day-old Israeli incursions in the north have so far killed dozens of Palestinians, with dozens of others feared dead on roads and under rubble of their houses, beyond the reach of medical teams.

Many Jabalia residents posted on social media platforms: “We will not leave, we die, and we don’t leave.”

The northern part of Gaza, home to well over half the territory’s 2.3 million people, was bombed to rubble in the first phase of Israel’s assault on the territory a year ago, after the October. 7 attacks on Israeli towns by militants who killed 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages.

After a year of Israeli assaults that killed 42,000 Palestinians, hundreds of thousands of residents have come back to ruined northern areas. A week ago Israel sent troops back to root out fighters it said were regrouping for more attacks. Hamas denies fighters operate among civilians.

The escalation in northern Gaza has taken place alongside a huge Israeli air assault and ground campaign on a separate front in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, which like Hamas is an ally of Iran.

“As the world is focused on Lebanon and possible Israeli strike against Iran, Israel is wiping out Jabalia,” said Nasser, a resident of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

“The occupation is blowing up roads and destroying residential districts. People also don’t find anything to eat, they are trapped inside their homes, fearing bombs could fall onto their heads,” he told Reuters via a chat app.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that forces operating throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours had attacked about 40 targets and killed dozens of militants.

“The forces of Division 162 continue to operate in the Jabalia region, in the last day the forces killed dozens of terrorists and found explosives, weapons, grenades and other means of warfare in the region,” it said.

The armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller other factions said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in Jabalia and nearby areas with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire.

Palestinian and United Nations officials say there are no safe areas in Gaza. They have also voiced concerns over severe shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies in northern Gaza, and said there is a risk of famine there.

Some tank shells landed in some streets of the Gaza City suburb of Sheikh Radwan, where tanks arrived at the edges of the territory, residents said, spreading panic among the population further south.

Tel Aviv:

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday expressed “deep concern” after two UN peacekeepers were injured by an Israeli strike in Lebanon, and said the peacekeepers were injured by Israeli fire as it was engaging Hezbollah, as reported by The Times of Israel.

“Earlier today (Friday), IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon identified an immediate threat against them. The soldiers responded with fire toward the threat. An initial examination indicates that during the incident, a hit was identified on a@UNIFIL_post, located approximately 50 meters from the source of the threat, resulting in the injury of two UNIFIL personnel,” the IDF said in a post on X.

Earlier today (Friday), IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon identified an immediate threat against them. The soldiers responded with fire toward the threat.

An initial examination indicates that during the incident, a hit was identified on a @UNIFIL_ post, located…

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 11, 2024

“Hours before the incident, the IDF instructed UNIFIL personnel to enter into protected spaces and remain there. This instruction was in place at the time of the incident,” it added.

Earlier in a post on X, the IDF said, “The IDF has been notified that two@UNpeacekeepers were inadvertently hurt during IDF combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.”

“The IDF expresses deep concern over incidents of this kind and is currently conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command to determine the details,” the IDF international spokesperson wrote.

“It is crucial to note that the IDF is operating in southern Lebanon as part of an ongoing conflict with Hezbollah whose terrorists and infrastructure are in close proximity to@UNIFIL_positions posing a significant risk to the safety of peacekeepers,” the IDF said.

The IDF has been notified that two @UN peacekeepers were inadvertently hurt during IDF combat against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The IDF expresses deep concern over incidents of this kind and is currently conducting a thorough review at the highest levels of command to…

— LTC Nadav Shoshani (@LTC_Shoshani) October 11, 2024

“The IDF takes every precaution to minimize harm to civilians and peacekeepers alike. Given the complex and challenging operational environment in which Hezbollah uses civilian and UNIFIL facilities as shields, the IDF will continue making efforts to mitigate the risk of such unfortunate incidents happening again,” it added.

“It is unfortunate that since 2006, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 has not been fully enforced and that Hezbollah violated it by establishing an extensive militarized presence in southern Lebanon requiring the IDF to operate against Hezbollah’s weapons, assets and personnel in the area,” the IDF said.

“The IDF remains committed to protecting Israeli communities along the border and will continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the safety of civilians and peacekeepers in this volatile region. We are committed to a careful examination of these incidents and to engaging in ongoing dialogue with UNIFIL and the nation states that participate in the peacekeeping mission,” it added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A Palestinian man inspects the damage to a school sheltering displaced people after it was hit by an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, at Beach refugee camp in Gaza City, September 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Civil defence rescuers in Gaza City said an Israeli strike on Sunday (September 22, 2024) on a school-turned-shelter killed at least seven people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted Hamas militants.

The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.

Israeli strikes on school-turned-shelters in Gaza

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported “seven martyrs and a number of wounded, including serious cases, as a result of Israeli shelling of Kafr Qasim School” in the Al-Shati refugee camp.

He said hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering there.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Palestinian militants operating from the school grounds, and that its forces had taken steps “to mitigate the risk of harm to uninvolved civilians” including by using “precise munitions” and surveillance.

It said the air force had “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip” who were “operating from a compound” at the school complex.

The military statement did not provide information on casualties.

This attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.

On Saturday (September 21, 2024) the civil defence agency said an Israeli strike on another school-turned-shelter, also in Gaza City, had killed 21 people. The military said it was targeting militants.

School sheltering displaced people

A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.

At least 41,391 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.

The recent conflict resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 97 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.

It was another day of war in Gaza, another day of what 19-year-old Palestinian TikTok star Medo Halimy called his “Tent Life”.

As he often did in videos documenting life’s mundane absurdities in the enclave, Halimy on Monday walked to his local internet cafe — rather, a tent with Wi-Fi where displaced Palestinians can connect to the outside world — to meet his friend and collaborator Talal Murad.

They snapped a selfie — “Finally Reunited” Halimy captioned it on Instagram — and started catching up.

Then came a flash of light, 18-year-old Mr. Murad said, an explosion of white heat and sprayed earth. Mr. Murad felt pain in his neck. Halimy was bleeding from his head. A car on the coastal road in front of them was engulfed in flames, the apparent target of an Israeli airstrike. It took 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. Hours later doctors pronounced Halimy dead.

“He represented a message,” Mr. Murad said on Friday (August 30, 2024), still recovering from his shrapnel wounds and reeling from the Israeli airstrike that killed his friend. “He represented hope and strength.”

The Israeli military said it was not aware of the strike that killed Halimy.

Tributes to Halimy kept pouring in on Friday from friends as far afield as Harker Heights, Texas, where he spent a year in 2021 as part of an exchange programme sponsored by the State Department.

“Medo was the life of the hangout… humour and kindness and wit, all things that can never be forgotten,” said Heba al-Saidi, alumni coordinator for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study programme. “He was bound for greatness, but he was taken too soon.”

His death also catalysed an outpouring of grief on social media, where his followers expressed shock and sadness as if they, too, had lost a close friend.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians — according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants — and spawned a humanitarian disaster. It has also transformed legions of ordinary teenagers, who have nothing to do every day but survive, into war correspondents for the social media age.

“We worked together, it was a kind of resistance that I hope to continue,” said Mr. Murad, who collaborated with Halimy on “The Gazan Experience”, an Instagram account that answered questions from followers around the world trying to understand their lives in the besieged enclave, which is inaccessible to foreign journalists.

Halimy launched his own TikTok account after taking refuge with his parents, four brothers and sister in Muwasi, the southern coastal area that Israel has designated a humanitarian safe zone. They had fled Israel’s invasion of Gaza City to the southern city of Khan Younis before escaping the bombardment again for the dusty encampment.

Sparked by Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and resulted in about 250 people taken hostage, the Israel-Hamas war has produced a torrent of images now numbingly familiar to viewers around the world: Bombed-out buildings, contorted bodies, chaotic hospital halls.

But Halimy’s content “came as a surprise,” said his friend, 19-year-old Helmi Hirez.

Turning his camera on the intimate details of his own life in Gaza, he reached viewers far and wide, revealing a maddening tedium that’s largely left out of news coverage about the war.

“If you wonder what living in a tent is actually like, come with me to show you how I spend my day,” Halimy says in his first of many “tent life” diaries filmed from the sprawling encampment.

He filmed himself going about his day: waiting restlessly in long lines for drinking water, showering with a jar and a bucket (“there’s no shampoo or soap, of course”), scavenging ingredients to make a surprisingly tasty baba ganoush, the Middle East’s smoky eggplant dip (“Mama mia!” he marvels at his creation), and becoming very, very bored (“then I went back to the tent, and did nothing”).

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world were captivated. His videos went viral — some amassing more than 2 million views on TikTok.

Even when recounting tragedies (his grandmother died, he mentioned at one point, largely because of Gaza’s acute medication and equipment shortages ) or fretting over Israel’s bombardment, Halimy’s friends said that he found salve in channelling his grief and anxiety into deadpan humour.

“Very annoying,” he says with an eye roll when the buzz of an Israeli drone interrupts one of his TikTok recipe videos.

“As you can see, the transportation here is not five stars,” he says when crammed between men in a pickup truck heading to the nearby town of Deir al-Balah.

“We proceeded to play, anyway,” he says of his Monopoly game, when the whooshing of Israeli projectiles sounds in the skies above him and his friends. “Anyway, I lost.”

In his last video, posted hours before he was killed, Halimy films himself scribbling in a notebook, its pages covered with mysterious black redaction bars.

“I started designs for my new secret project,” he said from the tent cafe that would later be struck, in the same tone he always used, one part playful, one part serious.

This photo taken from a position in northern Israel shows a Hezbollah UAV intercepted by Israeli air forces over north Israel on August 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced a 48-hour nationwide state of emergency from 06:00 am Sunday (August 25, 2024), after the Israeli military launched what it called pre-emptive strikes in Lebanon.

“The declaration on the state of emergency enables the IDF (Israeli military) to issue instructions to the citizens of Israel, including limiting gatherings and closing sites where it may be relevant,” Mr. Gallant said, in a statement issued by his office.

“I am convinced that there is a high probability of an attack against the civilian population in areas of the country where the declaration of a special situation did not apply,” he said, referring to previous local emergency measures.

“I hereby declare a special situation on the home front in other areas of the country. The situation is valid for 48 hours starting at 6:00 am,” Mr. Gallant said.

In a separate statement, the defence ministry said Mr. Gallant briefed US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on the overall situation.

“We have conducted precise strikes in Lebanon in order to thwart an imminent threat against the citizens of Israel,” Mr. Gallant told Austin, according to the statement.

“We are closely following developments in Beirut, and we are determined to use all the means at our disposal in order to defend our citizens.”

The statement also said that the two leaders “discussed the importance of avoiding regional escalation”.

Palestinians grieve at the funeral for more than 15 people, including several children and women, killed in an Israeli strike, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

As mediators expressed optimism for an imminent ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, violence raged on Saturday (August 17, 2024) in the Gaza Strip, where an Israeli airstrike killed at least 18 persons, all from the same family.

The attack came days after the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced the death toll surpassed 40,000 in the 10-month-old war, and hours after officials from the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar ended two days of cease-fire talks with a message of hope that a deal could be reached.

A joint statement from the mediators said a proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas was presented and they expected to work out the details of how to implement the possible deal next week in Cairo.

The mediation efforts are aimed not just at securing the release of scores of Israeli hostages and stopping the fighting that has devastated Gaza, where aid and health workers fear a possible polio outbreak. They are also aimed at calming regional tensions that have threatened to explode into a broader war if Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon attack Israel in retaliation for the recent killings of top militant leaders.

Saturday’s airstrike in Gaza hit a house and adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance to Zawaida town, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter there counted the dead.

Among those killed was Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children ages 2 to 22, the children’s grandmother and three other relatives, according to a list provided by the hospital.

“He was a peaceful man,” said Abu Ahmed, a neighbour who was slightly wounded. More than 40 civilians were sheltering in the house and warehouse at the time, he said.

Footage showed bulldozers removing rubble from the heavily damaged warehouse.

The Israeli military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, said it was checking the report. It said Saturday (August 17, 2024) it was continuing attacks on militants in central Gaza, including one seen launching rockets at troops.

Meanwhile, another mass evacuation was ordered for parts of central Gaza. In a post on X, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Palestinians in areas in and around the urban Maghazi refugee camp should leave. He said Israeli forces will operate in them in response to Palestinian rocket fire.

The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the fighting, often multiple times, and around 84% of the territory has been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the United Nations.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 to Gaza. More than 100 were released in a November cease-fire. Around 110 are believed to be in Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe around a third are dead.

Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants, without providing evidence.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday at least 40,074 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The Ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

Mediators have spent months pursuing a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Efforts took on new urgency in recent weeks as diplomats hoped a deal would persuade Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas’ top political leader in an explosion in Tehran that was widely blamed on Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since the war started, and an Israeli strike Saturday killed at least 10 Syrians, including a woman and her two children, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot.

In what appeared to be a sign of confidence, mediators were beginning preparations for implementing the cease-fire proposal even before it was approved, said an American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with rules set by the White House.

The official said an “implementation cell” was being established in Cairo to focus on logistics — including freeing hostages, providing humanitarian aid for Gaza and ensuring the deal’s terms are met.

But Hamas cast doubt on whether an agreement was near, saying the latest proposal diverged significantly from a previous iteration they had accepted in principle.

Both sides agreed in principle to a plan announced on May 31 by U.S. President Joe Biden. But Hamas has proposed amendments, and Israel has suggested clarifications, leading each side to accuse the other of trying to block a deal.

The U.S. official said the latest proposal is the same as Biden’s, with some clarifications based on ongoing talks. The way it’s structured poses no risk to Israel’s security but enhances it, he added.

Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands, which include a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants.

But Israel showed flexibility during the talks on retreating from the border corridor, and a meeting between Egyptian and Israeli military officials was scheduled for the following week to agree on a withdrawal mechanism, according to two Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private negotiations.

Israel insisted on keeping control of the road bisecting Gaza, but U.S. mediators vowed to return to the talks next week with a compromise on that demand, the officials said.

As part of diplomacy aimed at securing the deal, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Cairo on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to travel to Israel over the weekend and was expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

File photo of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander-in-Chief Major General Hossein Salami.
| Photo Credit: Reuters/WANA News Agency

Iran’s commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard General Hossein Salami said “no threat will go unanswered” in retaliation on April 5 for the airstrike widely attributed to Israel that destroyed Iran’s Consulate in the Syrian capital and killed seven of the guard’s members.

This came after thousands marched chanting “death to Israel” and “death to America” during the killed officers’ funeral procession.

The marches in the capital, Tehran, along with protests in other Iranian cities, came at a time of heightened concerns about possible retaliation by Iran for Monday’s strike that killed 12 people, including four Syrian citizens and a member of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group, according to officials.

The protesters in the capital headed to Tehran University where Salami gave his speech.

“The collapse of (the Zionist regime) is very possible and close with God’s grace,” Salami said, adding that the U.S. has become “wildly hated by the world, especially in Muslim-dominated countries.

He added that Israel’s current survival depended on U.S. support.

Salami said that “resistance groups in Gaza are surrounded by Israel.. and weapons can’t be transported to them,” referring to the Israel-Hamas war that broke out on Oct.7

The public funeral coincided with Iran’s annual rally Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, a traditional show of support for the Palestinians that has been held on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iranian leaders have reiterated promises of revenge. On Wednesday Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said the attack “will not remain without answer.”

By attacking an Iranian diplomatic station, Israel’s apparent escalation has raised fears that the devastating six-month war against Hamas could spill over into the entire Mideast region and beyond.

Israel faces increasing isolation as international criticism mounts over its killing of six foreign aid workers this week who were trying to deliver desperately needed food in Gaza.

Iran does not recognize Israel and views it as its archenemy. It also supports militant groups, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Clashes between Israel and Hezbollah along the Israeli-Lebanese border have increased since the war in Gaza began nearly six months ago.

Muslim clergymen and other people pray during the funeral of victims killed during overnight Israeli bombardment in the village of Habariyeh in southern Lebanon on March 27, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An Israeli airstrike on a paramedics centre linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon killed seven of its members early on March 27 and triggered a rocket attack from Lebanon that killed one person in northern Israel, officials said.

The strike on the village of Hebbariye came after a day of airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israel’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group along the Lebanon-Israel border, raising concerns of further escalation along the frontier that has been active for the past five months of the Israel-Hamas war.

The airstrike after midnight hit an office of the Islamic Emergency and Relief Corps, according to the Lebanese Ambulance Association. It was one of the deadliest single attacks since violence erupted along the border.

The paramedics association listed the names of seven volunteers who were killed in the strike. It said the strike was “a flagrant violation of humanitarian work.”

Hebbariye resident Ali Noureddine said the seven dead were pulled out from the rubble before sunrise on Wednesday.

Muheddine Qarhani, head of the Emergency and Relief Corps, told reporters at the scene that the center that was struck was set up late last year, after the latest round of violence broke out. He said they were surprised that a paramedic group was targeted.

“They were here waiting to respond to a rescue call and ended up getting hit by missiles that brought the building over their heads,” he said.

The Israeli military said it struck a military building in Hebbariye and killed a member of Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, and several other militants. It said the man was involved in attacks against Israel.

Hours later, Hezbollah said it retaliated against the airstrike by firing dozens of rockets Wednesday morning on the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and a military base there.

Rescue services in Israel said that a 25 year-old man was killed when a direct hit sparked a fire in an industrial park in Kiryat Shmona. Footage from the scene showed thick black smoke pouring out of a building.

Another person was lightly injured. Around 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.

Nada Khleif was in her small bakery in Hebbariyeh when the strike heavily damaged her business and a nearby apartment, where two of her relatives were unharmed.

“The bakery was my only means of living. It is gone now,” she said.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group began launching rockets toward Israel one day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.

The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon.

The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike on October 17 hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.

Photos from al-Ahli Hospital showed fire engulfing the hospital halls, shattered glass and body parts scattered across the area. The ministry said at least 500 people had been killed.

Follow Israel-Hamas war, day 11 LIVE updates here

Several hospitals in Gaza City have become refuges for hundreds of people, hoping they would be spared bombardment after Israel ordered all residents of the city and surrounding areas to evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said there were still no details on the hospital deaths: “We will get the details and update the public. I don’t know to say whether it was an Israeli air strike.” In the south, continued strikes killed dozens of civilians and at least one senior Hamas figure Tuesday in attacks it says are targeted at militants.

U.S. officials worked to convince Israel to allow delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals after days of failed hopes for an opening in the siege.

With Israel barring entry of water, fuel and food into Gaza since Hamas’ brutal attack last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken secured an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss creation of a mechanism for delivering aid to the territory’s 2.3 million people.

U.S. officials said the gain might appear modest, but stressed that it was a significant step forward.

Still, as of late Tuesday, there was no deal in place. A top Israeli official said Tuesday his country was demanding guarantees that Hamas militants would not seize any aid deliveries. Tzahi Hanegbi, head of Israel’s National Security Council, suggested entry of aid also depended on the return of hostages held by Hamas.

“The return of the hostages, which is sacred in our eyes, is a key component in any humanitarian efforts,” he told reporters, without elaborating whether Israel was demanding the release of all of the roughly 200 people Hamas abducted before allowing supplies in.

U.S. President Joe Biden prepared to head to the region as he and other world leaders tried to prevent the war from sparking a broader regional conflict. Violence flared Tuesday along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants operate.

With tens of thousands of troops massed along the border, Israel has been expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza — but plans remained uncertain.

“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said.

“We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about a ground offensive. It might be something different.” In Gaza, dozens of injured were rushed to hospitals after heavy attacks outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, residents reported. Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reported 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 in Khan Younis.

An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Family members came to claim the bodies, wrapped in white bedsheets, some soaked in blood.

An airstrike in Deir al Balah reduced a house to rubble, killing a man and 11 women and children inside and in a neighboring house, some of whom had evacuated from Gaza City. Witnesses said there was no warning before the strike.

Shelling from Israeli tanks hit a UN school in central Gaza where 4,000 Palestinians had taken refuge, killing six people and wounding dozens, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agencysaid.

At least 24 UN installations have been hit the past week, killing at least 14 of the agency’s staff.

The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers.

A barrage of strikes crashed into the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, leveling an entire block of homes and causing dozens of casualties among families inside, residents said. Among those killed was one of Hamas’ top military commanders, Ayman Nofal, the group’s military wing said — the most high-profile militant known to have been killed so far in the war.

Nofal, formerly the intelligence chief of Hamas’ armed wing, was in charge of Hamas militant activities in the central Gaza Strip, including coordinating activities with other militant groups.

Mr. Netanyahu sought to put the blame on Hamas for Israel’s retaliatory attacks and the rising civilian casualties in Gaza.

“Not only is it targeting and murdering civilians with unprecedented savagery, it’s hiding behind civilians,” he said.

In Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes also hit the house of Hamas’ top political official, Ismail Haniyeh, killing at least 14 people. Haniyeh is based in Doha, Qatar, but his family lives in Gaza City. The Hamas media office did not immediately identify those killed.

Israel sealed off Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed over 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and resulted in some 200 taken captive into Gaza. Hamas militants in Gaza have launched rockets every day since, aiming at cities across Israel.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said.

Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes — roughly half of Gaza’s population — and 60% are now in the approximately 14-kilometer (8-mile) long area south of the evacuation zone, the UN said.

Aid workers warned that the territory was near complete collapse. Hospitals were on the verge of losing electricity, threatening the lives of thousands of patients, and hundreds of thousands of people searched for bread and water.

The UN agency for Palestinians said more than 400,000 displaced people are crowded into schools and other facilities in the south.

The agency said it has only 1 liter of water a day for each of its staff members trapped in the territory.

Israel opened a water line into the south for three hours that benefitted only 14% of Gaza’s population, the UN said.

At the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid were waiting to enter. The World Food Program said that it had more than 300 tons of food waiting to cross into Gaza.

Civilians with foreign citizenship — many of them Palestinians with dual nationalities — also waited in Rafah, desperate to get out.

“We come to the border crossing hoping that it will open, but so far there is no information,” said Jameel Abdullah, a Swedish citizen.

Repeated reports that an opening was imminent have proven false as negotiations continued to grind on, including the US, Israel and Egypt.

A senior Egyptian official called it a “very tough, complicated back-and-forth process” and said talks were over deliveries through Rafah and Israel’s Karam Shalom crossing to Gaza. He said Israel was insisting to search all aid, and wants to “ensure that such aid won’t benefit Hamas.” He said Egypt proposed that the UN oversee the whole process, including inside Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to brief the press on the talks.

Officials for Hamas and Israel cast doubt on an immediate opening, saying they were unaware of an agreement.

Mr. Blinken arrived in Israel last Thursday with a full-throated message of unequivocal U.S. support for Israel in its campaign to destroy Hamas. But in meetings with seven Arab leaders over the next three days, Mr. Blinken’s tone shifted subtly, talking more prominently about the need for humanitarian aid.

US officials said it had become clear by then that already limited Arab tolerance of Israel’s military operations would evaporate entirely if conditions in Gaza worsened. They said that outright condemnation of Israel by Arab leaders would be a boon to Hamas and could encourage Iran, according to four officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking. That prompted Mr. Blinken to press Mr. Netanyahu on an aid deal.

Mr. Biden’s visit to Israel Wednesday will signal the White House’s support for a key ally. He will also travel to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders amid fears the fighting could spread in the region.

Israel evacuated towns near its northern border with Lebanon, where the military has exchanged fire repeatedly with Hezbollah militants.

Israel said it killed four militants wearing explosive vests who were attempting to cross into the country from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Israel’s continuing offensive in Gaza could cause a violent reaction across the region.

“Bombardments should be immediately stopped. Muslim nations are angry,” Khamenei said, according to state media.