JERUSALEM – Israel’s military pounded Gaza City on Aug 13 prior to a planned takeover, with 123 more people killed in the last day, as the Palestinian militant group Hamas held further talks with Egyptian mediators.

The 24-hour death toll was the worst in a week and added to the massive fatalities from

that has shattered the enclave housing more than two million Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated an idea – also enthusiastically floated by US President Donald Trump – that Palestinians should simply leave.

“They’re not being pushed out. They’ll be allowed to exit,” he told Israeli TV channel i24News.

“All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us.”

Arabs and many world leaders are aghast at the idea of displacing the Gaza population, which Palestinians say would be like another “Nakba” (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced out during a 1948 war.

Israel’s planned re-seizure of Gaza City, which it took in the early days of the war before withdrawing,

, officials say. That means a ceasefire is still possible, though talks have been floundering and conflict still rages.

Israeli planes and tanks bombed eastern areas of Gaza City heavily, residents said, with many homes destroyed in the Zeitoun and Shejaia neighbourhoods overnight. Al-Ahli Hospital said 12 people were killed in an air strike on a home in Zeitoun.

Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza too, while in the centre, Israeli gunfire killed nine aid-seekers in two separate incidents, Palestinian medics said.

Eight more people, including three children, have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory’s Health Ministry said. That took the total to 235, including 106 children, since the war began.

Hamas chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya’s meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Aug 13 were to focus on stopping the war, delivering aid and “ending the suffering of our people in Gaza”, Hamas official Taher al-Nono said in a statement.

Ceasefire possibilities

Egyptian security sources said the talks would also discuss the possibility of a comprehensive ceasefire that would see Hamas relinquish governance in Gaza and concede its weapons.

A Hamas official told Reuters that the group was open to all ideas if Israel ends the war and pulls out. But “laying down arms before the occupation is dismissed is impossible”, the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Mr Netanyahu’s plan to expand military control over Gaza, which Israeli sources said could be launched in October, has heightened global outcry over the widespread devastation, displacement and hunger in the enclave.

About half of Gaza’s residents live in the Gaza City area.

Foreign ministers of 24 countries, including Britain, Canada, Australia, France and Japan, said this week that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza

and urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid.

Israel denies responsibility for hunger, accusing Hamas of stealing aid. It says it has taken steps to increase deliveries, including daily combat pauses in some areas and protected routes for aid convoys.

The Israeli military on Aug 13 said nearly 320 trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, and that a further nearly 320 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and international organisations in the past 24 hours along with three tankers of fuel and 97 pallets of air-dropped aid.

The UN and Palestinians say aid entering Gaza remains far from sufficient.

The war began on Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza since then has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. REUTERS