At least 125 more Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli strikes amid reports that Israel and Hamas have made some progress toward agreement on a 30-day cease-fire in Gaza.
Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt have for weeks shuttled between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group trying to broker terms for a break in fighting, which would also allow in more food and medical supplies.
But the two sides remain at odds over how to end the Gaza conflict permanently and Hamas has refused to move forward until this is resolved, sources told Reuters.
However, Israeli spokesperson Eylon Levy said Tuesday there would be no cease-fire that left Hamas in power and hostages in Gaza, following the group's Oct. 7 incursion that killed some 1,140 people.
Palestinian health officials say 25,490 Gazans have since been killed, with thousands more feared lost under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
The U.S. State Department and White House, Qatar's Foreign Ministry and Egypt's State Information Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment on prospects for a new cease-fire deal, following a weeklong truce in November.
Heavy Israeli bombardment of Gaza overnight killed at least 125 people, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.
As the fighting raged, the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said Israeli forces had issued fresh evacuation orders for a section of Khan Younis housing an estimated half a million residents and displaced people.
The orders came as the World Food Programme warned Gazans were facing "catastrophic food insecurity," and as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took Israel to task over its rejection of a two-state solution – seen by ally the United States as the only path to a durable peace.
The heaviest clashes were taking place in Khan Younis, the birthplace of Hamas's Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, accused of being the mastermind behind Oct. 7.
The Israeli military says it has "encircled" the southern city and that its troops were intensifying operations "in the area of the Khan Younis (refugee) camp."
Gaza hospitals had received the bodies of 125 people killed overnight, the Health Ministry added.
The Gazan government said more than 200 people were killed, without specifying a timeframe.
It accused the Israeli army of forcibly displacing "tens of thousands" of people from Khan Younis to Rafah, the city in south Gaza that abuts the Egyptian frontier.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said three displaced people were killed and three wounded when Israeli forces targeted its headquarters in the southern city.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra accused Israel of targeting the Nasser Hospital, the largest medical facility still operating, saying attacks were blocking access for medics and patients and threatening to put it out of action.
"The occupation is placing the lives of medical teams, patients, the injured and the displaced in several hospitals in Khan Younis in danger," he said.
Martin Griffiths, U.N. coordinator of emergency relief, said on Tuesday that 24 people had been killed in strikes on an aid warehouse, U.N. center and humanitarian zone in the Khan Younis area, and that a center where aid is distributed to families had come under heavy bombardment.
Some people were taking dirt roads out of Khan Younis to try to reach Rafah, or Deir Al-Balah to the north, according to residents and freelance reporters leaving the area.
Video footage from different areas has shown Palestinians burying their dead as best they can, in streets and markets as well as the grounds of hospitals and, more recently, inside Al-Aqsa University, west of Khan Younis.
"The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council.
"Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people," he said, denouncing Israel's opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel.
Diplomacy around a cease-fire deal appeared intense. Qatar said on Tuesday it had "presented ideas to both sides, we are getting a constant stream of replies from both sides and that in its own right is a cause for optimism."
U.S. Middle East envoy Brett McGurk was in Cairo and due to hold "active" discussions on ensuring the release of hostages and securing a humanitarian pause, the White House said. More than 130 hostages are still being held in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
"Certainly one of the things he's in the region talking about is the potential for another hostage deal, which would require a humanitarian pause of some length," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
"The conversations are very sober and serious about trying to get another hostage deal."
A Palestinian source familiar with the talks told AFP a Hamas delegation had arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to meet Egypt's intelligence chief and discuss new cease-fire proposals.
A source close to Hamas told AFP that the talks in the Egyptian capital continued on Wednesday.
Both Israel and Hamas blamed eachother for the collapse of a seven-day truce in November in which Hamas had freed women, children and foreign hostages in exchange for daily releases of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
