CAIRO: Israeli tanks moved deeper into Gaza City's residential districts on Sunday, as local health authorities said they have been unable to respond to dozens of desperate calls, expressing concern about the fate of residents in the targeted areas. Witnesses and medics said Israeli tanks had deepened their incursions in the Sabra, Tel Al Hawa, Sheikh Radwan and Al Naser neighbourhoods, closing in on the heart and the western areas of Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of people are sheltering. The Israeli military launched its long-threatened ground offensive on Gaza City on September 16 after weeks of intensifying strikes on the urban centre, forcing hundreds of Palestinians to flee although many still remain.
Hamas, which Israel has demanded must surrender, said on Sunday it had not received a new proposal from mediators, after US President Donald Trump said on Friday that "a deal on Gaza" seemed likely. Trump is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Israel separately said that Ambassador Mike Huckabee would travel to Egypt to meet with Egyptian officials "as part of regular diplomatic consultations conducted between US embassies in the region".
Hamas's armed wing urged the Israeli military to temporarily halt air strikes and withdraw from part of Gaza City on Sunday as it tried to locate two Israeli hostages it said it had lost contact with. "The lives of the two prisoners are in real danger, and (Israeli) forces must immediately withdraw to the south of Street 8 and halt aerial operations for 24 hours starting from 18:00 today to allow attempts to rescue the prisoners," wrote the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades in a statement.
In a previous announcement, the group said the loss of contact was due to Israeli military operations in two southern Gaza City neighbourhoods over the previous 48 hours, where Israeli forces have stepped up air and ground assaults. In the past, the movement announced that it had lost contact with an Israeli-American hostage, who was released a few days after that announcement. Since launching its offensive on Gaza City, the Israeli military has repeatedly ordered Palestinians to move south.
The Civil Emergency Service in Gaza said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international organisations, to rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City. Israeli authorities had no immediate comment. The military earlier said forces were expanding operations in the city and that five fighters firing an anti-tank missile towards Israeli troops had been killed by the Israeli air force.
Over the past 24 hours, the air force had struck 140 targets across Gaza, the military said. At least five people were killed in an air strike in Gaza’s Al Naser area, local health authorities said. Medics reported 16 more deaths in strikes on houses in central Gaza, bringing Sunday’s death toll to at least 21. Later on Sunday, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement that at least 77 people have been killed by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours. Israel's military siege has caused a humanitarian catastrophe across Gaza. Four health facilities in Gaza City have shut down this month, the World Health Organization has said. Some malnutrition centres have also closed, the UN says.
The World Food Programme estimates that between 350,000 and 400,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City since last month, although hundreds of thousands remain. The Israeli military estimates that around a million Palestinians were in Gaza City in August. Israeli forces have killed more than 66,000 Palestinians in the enclave, according to Gaza's health authorities, displaced the entire population, and crippled the territory's health system. — AFP
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