Israeli attacks on Gaza ramp up before Netanyahu US visit
The intensified attacks came after days of mounting calls for a ceasefire, with US President Donald Trump - whom the Israeli prime minister is scheduled to meet next week - among those urging Israel to strike a new deal to halt the war and bring home the hostages still held in Gaza.
Israeli forces killed at least 20 people today, Gaza's civil defence agency reported.
Raafat Halles, 39, from the Shujaiya district of Gaza City, said "air strikes and shelling have intensified over the past week", and tanks have been advancing.
"I believe that every time negotiations or a potential ceasefire are mentioned, the army escalates crimes and massacres on the ground," he said. "I don't know why."
Amer Daloul, a 44-year-old resident of Gaza City, also reported fiercer clashes between Israeli forces and militants in recent days, saying that he and his family were forced to flee the tent they were living in at dawn today "due to heavy and random gunfire and shelling".
Photographers saw Israeli tanks deploying at the Gaza border in southern Israel and children picking through the rubble of a destroyed home in Gaza City.
Others photographed Palestinians mourning over the bodies of relatives in the city's Al-Shifa hospital and the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.
Aid seekers killed
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that eight people were killed near aid distribution sites in central and southern Gaza, in the latest in a spate of deadly attacks on those seeking food.
He said one person was killed and 50 wounded when tanks and drones opened fire as crowds were waiting to collect aid near the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the middle of the territory.
The civil defence agency said another six people were killed nearby while trying to reach the same aid centre.
At least one more person was killed near another aid centre in Rafah, it added.
Commenting on those incidents, the Israeli military said its forces "fired warning shots to distance suspects who approached the troops", adding it was not aware of any injuries but would review the incidents.
In the Rafah incident, it said the shots were fired "hundreds of metres away from the aid distribution site", which was "not operating".
Mr Bassal said later that an air strike killed three people in front of a school housing displaced people in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City, raising the overall toll to 20.
Calls for return of UN-led aid mechanism
A group of 169 aid organisations called yesterday for an end to Gaza's "deadly" new US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme, which they said was leading to civilian deaths.
They said the system forced starving civilians to "trek for hours through dangerous terrain and active conflict zones, only to face a violent, chaotic race" for food.
They urged a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed until March, when Israel imposed a full blockade on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza during an impasse in truce talks with Hamas.
The new scheme's administrator, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has distanced itself from reports of aid seekers being killed near its centres.
Netanyahu to visit White House
Mr Netanyahu announced he would visit Mr Trump and senior US security officials next week, amid mounting pressure to end more than 20 months of devastating fighting in Gaza.
Mr Trump vowed to be "very firm" in his stance on ending the war when he meets the Israeli premier on 7 July.
"But he (Netanyahu) wants it too.... He wants to end it too," the US president added.
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said the group is "ready to agree to any proposal if it will lead to an end to the war and a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of occupation forces".
"So far, there has been no breakthrough."
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