58 killed in intensified Israeli strikes in Gaza, ahead of another ceasefire push
Israeli officials due in Washington for renewed Trump administration push for ceasefire
Israeli strikes killed at least 58 people across Gaza on Monday, as residents in the enclave's north reported one of the heaviest bombardments in weeks. It comes as Israeli officials were due in Washington for a new ceasefire push by the Trump administration.
A day after U.S. President Donald Trump urged an end to the 20-month-old war, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected at the White House for talks on a Gaza ceasefire, Iran and possible wider regional diplomatic deals.
But on the ground in the Palestinian enclave, there was no sign of fighting letting up. The Israeli military issued evacuation orders on Monday to residents in large districts in the northern Gaza Strip, forcing a new wave of displacement.
"Explosions never stopped; they bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes," said Salah, 60, a father of five from Gaza City. "In the news, we hear a ceasefire is near; on the ground, we see death and we hear explosions."
Israeli tanks pushed into the eastern areas of Zeitoun suburb in Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north, while aircraft bombed at least four schools after ordering hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said.
"All of us have children, we're innocent. We were sleeping in our tents," Nisreen Abu Zaid, a 45-year-old mother of four, told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Monday.
Amani Salouha, 36, said her husband was killed last Wednesday in an earlier Israeli strike in Gaza City, leaving her as the sole caretaker of their three children.
"Now I'm taking care of the children [alone]. Where are we going to flee in the middle of the night? What is their fault in any of this?" Salouha said
At least 58 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Monday, Gaza health authorities said, including 10 people killed in Zeitoun and at least 13 killed southwest of Gaza City. Medics said most of the 13 were hit by gunfire, but residents also reported an airstrike.
Twenty people, including a local journalist, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a beachfront café in Gaza City, medics said. The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate said more than 220 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.
The Israeli military claimed it struck militant targets in northern Gaza, including command and control centres, after taking steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, but it did not provide any evidence.
The heavy bombardment followed new evacuation orders to vast areas in the north, where Israeli forces had operated before and left behind wide-scale destruction. The military ordered people there to head south, saying that it planned to fight Hamas militants operating in northern Gaza, including in the heart of Gaza City.
Netanyahu's security cabinet to discuss next steps
Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a confidant of Netanyahu's, was expected on Monday at the White House for talks on Iran and Gaza, an Israeli official said.
Dermer was expected to begin meetings with Trump administration officials on Tuesday, the source in Washington said.
Alongside talks on Gaza ceasefire prospects, Dermer also plans to discuss Netanyahu's possible visit to the White House in coming weeks, according to the source familiar with the matter.
In Israel, Netanyahu's security cabinet was expected to convene to discuss the next steps in Gaza.
On Friday, Israel's military chief said the present ground operation was close to having achieved its goals. And on Sunday, Netanyahu said new opportunities had opened up for recovering the hostages, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
Palestinian and Egyptian sources with knowledge of the latest ceasefire efforts said that mediators Qatar and Egypt have stepped up their contacts with the two warring sides, but that no date has been set yet for a new round of truce talks.
A Hamas official said that progress depends on Israel changing its position and agreeing to end the war and withdraw from Gaza. Israel says it can end the war only when Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel has agreed to a U.S.-proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage deal, and put the onus on Hamas.
"Israel is serious in its will to reach a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza," Saar told reporters in Jerusalem.
The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel on Oct. 7 2023, killing 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza in a surprise attack that led to Israel's single deadliest day.
Israel's subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, displacing almost the entire 2.3 million population and plunging the enclave into a humanitarian crisis.
More than 80 per cent of the territory is now an Israeli-militarized zone or under displacement orders, according to the United Nations.
With files from CBC News and Mohamed El Saife