Israel's military said Tuesday that it had expanded its operations in Gaza, where residents reported fierce gunfire and shelling days before a planned trip to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The intensified operations came after days of mounting calls for a ceasefire, with US President Donald Trump -- whom Netanyahu 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.
Israel's campaign to destroy the Palestinian militant group Hamas has raged on unabated, however, with Gaza's civil defence agency reporting Israeli forces killed at least 26 people on Tuesday.
In response to reports of deadly strikes in the north and south of the territory, the Israeli army told AFP it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities".
Separately, it said Tuesday morning that in recent days it had "expanded its operations to additional areas within the Gaza Strip, eliminating dozens of terrorists and dismantling hundreds of terror infrastructure sites both above and below ground".
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."
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Amer Daloul, a 44-year-old resident of Gaza City, also reported fiercer clashes between Israeli forces and militants in recent days, telling AFP that he and his family were forced to flee the tent they were living in at dawn on Tuesday "due to heavy and random gunfire and shelling".
AFP 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
The Red Cross warned that Gaza's few functioning medical facilities were overwhelmed, with nearly all public hospitals "shut down or gutted by months of hostilities and restrictions" on supplies.
"The International Committee of the Red Cross is deeply alarmed by the intensifying hostilities in Gaza City and Jabaliya, which have reportedly caused dozens of deaths and injuries among civilians over the past 36 hours," the ICRC said in a statement.
Gaza's civil defence service said 16 people were killed near aid distribution sites in central and southern Gaza on Tuesday, in the latest in a spate of deadly attacks on those seeking food, with 10 others killed in other Israeli operations.
Commenting on the incidents, the Israeli military told AFP 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.
Referring to an incident in Rafah, it said the shots were fired "hundreds of metres (yards) away from the aid distribution site", which was "not operating".
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers.
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Aid reform call
A group of 169 aid organisations called Monday 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.
PM's US visit
Netanyahu announced he would visit Trump and senior US security officials next week, amid mounting pressure to end more than 20 months of devastating fighting in Gaza.
Trump vowed Tuesday to be "very firm" in his stance on ending the war when he meets the Israeli premier on July 7.
"But he (Netanyahu) wants it too... He wants to end it too," the US president added.
Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP 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."
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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