DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces advanced further into the Gaza Strip’s largest city in a raid the military said targeted militants who had regrouped there, prompting thousands of Palestinians to flee a devastated area in the Gaza Strip on Monday. first weeks of nine month war.
The advance towards Gaza City came when Israel and Hamas came closer to closing gaps in indirect talks about a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
Israeli troops fought militants in areas the army said had largely been cleared months ago in largely isolated northern Gaza. The army ordered evacuations before the raids, but Palestinians say no place feels safe. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are crammed into sweltering tent camps.
Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, in the first weeks of the war and has prevented most people from returning. But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to live in the rubble of their homes or shelters.
“We fled in the dark amid heavy attacks,” said Sayeda Abdel-Baki, a mother of three who had taken refuge in her relatives’ home in the Daraj neighborhood. “This is my fifth trip.”
Residents reported artillery and tank fire, as well as airstrikes. The Gaza Health Ministry, which has limited access to the north, did not immediately report any casualties.
Israel on Monday issued additional evacuation orders for areas in other neighborhoods of central Gaza City, asking residents to head south to the city of Deir al-Balah.
Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of hiding among civilians. In Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood that has seen weeks of intense fighting, the army said troops had raided and destroyed schools and a clinic that had been converted into militant compounds.
Israel and Hamas appear to be the closest they have come in months to reaching a ceasefire deal that would pause the war in exchange for the release of dozens of Israelis captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war.
But obstacles remain, even after Hamas agreed to give in on its key demand that Israel commit to ending the war as part of any deal. A key part of that change, officials told The Associated Pressis the level of destruction caused by Israel’s continued offensive.
Hamas still wants mediators to “guarantee” that negotiations conclude with a permanent ceasefire, according to two officials with knowledge of the talks. The current draft says the mediators – the United States, Qatar and Egypt – will “do everything possible” to ensure negotiations lead to an agreement to end the war.
Israel has rejected any deal that would force it to end the war with Hamas still intact, a condition for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. reiterated on Sunday.
The officials said there is also a stalemate over whether Hamas should be allowed to choose the high-profile prisoners held by Israel that it wants to release in exchange for the hostages. Some long-serving prisoners were convicted of killing Israelis, and Israel does not want Hamas to determine who is released. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive conversations with the media.
Inside Gaza, residents saw no end to their suffering.
Maha Mahfouz fled her home with her two children and many neighbors from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City. She said her area was not included in the latest evacuation orders, but “we are panicking because the shelling and shooting are very close to us.”
Fadel Naeem, director of Al-Ahli hospital, said patients and their companions fled the facility in panic even though there was no evacuation order for the surrounding area. He said patients in critical condition had been evacuated to other hospitals in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said it had received intelligence showing the area was hosting militants from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group.
Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Civil Defense, rescuers operating under the Hamas-led government, said the neighborhoods of Tufah, Daraj and Shijaiyah had become inaccessible due to Israeli shelling.
In a voice message, he said the military bombed houses in the Jaffa area of Gaza City and rescuers “saw people lying on the ground and could not recover them due to the bombing.”
The war has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The fighting has decimated large swaths of urban landscape and caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Hamas cross-border raid on October 7 killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities. The militants took about 250 people hostage. About 120 remain in captivity, and about a third are said to be dead.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed.
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