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©(Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
For months, a prospective cessation of hostilities has centered around a phased deal beginning with an initial truce.
Recent discussions have focused on a framework outlined by US President Joe Biden in late May, which he said had been proposed by Israel.
Evacuation order
Ahead of the talks, fighting has raged in north Gaza, and elsewhere in the territory, with thousands of Palestinians newly displaced. The developments led Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh to warn negotiations could be reset "to square one," the movement said.
Palestinians on Monday fled heavy battles in Gaza City as the Israeli military expanded an evacuation order nine months into its war with Hamas militants.
Israeli troops and tanks pushed into parts of Gaza City, in the besieged territory's north, and battled Palestinian militants.
Thousands were on the move again, according to the Civil Defense agency in the territory. Witnesses said messages on loudspeakers urged civilians to leave Gaza City's al-Daraj and al-Tuffah neighborhoods.
Israel's military reported strikes on targets in the Rafah and Khan Younes areas of southern Gaza.
UNRWA targeted
The military said Israeli forces were carrying out a "counterterrorism operation" against Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the area of the Gaza City headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
There was no immediate comment from UNRWA, whose facilities across Gaza have come under attack before.
Witnesses reported gunfire from Israeli vehicles east of Khan Younes.
Israel in early January said it had dismantled Hamas's "military framework" in northern Gaza, but militants have since regrouped – pointing to the difficulty of destroying the group, which Netanyahu says is one of the goals.
Gaza's Civil Defense reported "dozens of martyrs and wounded" across the coastal territory, saying rescuers were unable to reach some areas due to the intense fighting.
A Hamas senior official on Monday accused the Israeli premier of stepping up bombardment in order to derail the latest truce effort.
"Whenever a round of negotiations begins and a breakthrough is within reach, he... escalates the aggression," the Hamas official charged, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Two separate strikes, on Saturday in the central Nuseirat refugee camp and on Sunday in Gaza City, killed people in schools turned into displacement shelters.
The United Nations estimates 90% of Gazans have fled their homes.
Netanyahu's hard-right political allies have threatened to leave the government if he agrees to stop the fighting before Hamas is eliminated.
With AFP
This Is Beirut
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