Israel said on Friday that it has carried out airstrikes on dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours.
Palestinian health authorities reported over 110 fatalities from the attacks in the last two days.
The surge in Israel’s airstrikes and casualties in Gaza comes amid a renewed push to reach a ceasefire in the 15-month-old war and return Israeli hostages before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
Israeli mediators were dispatched to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which is helping to broker the talks, urged Hamas to agree to a deal.
Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement but it was unclear how close the two sides were.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that more than 40 persons were killed on Friday and 71 the previous day including in Al-Mawasi, an area in central Gaza.
Al-Mawasi was previously declared a humanitarian safe zone by Israeli authorities.
Israel’s military said its airstrikes had hit around 40 Hamas gathering points besides command and control centres in Gaza.
It said it had taken several measures to reduce the risk of harming civilians, including using precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence.
It accused Hamas, the Islamist movement that formerly controlled Gaza, of placing fighters in civilian areas including buildings formerly used as schools, where it said troops found several weapons.
Hamas has rejected accusations that it deliberately uses the civilian population to shield fighters.
On Friday, the military told civilians in the area of al-Bureij in central Gaza to evacuate ahead of an operation it ordered following rocket attacks from the area.
It asked residents should move to the humanitarian zone for their own safety.
Elsewhere, Israeli troops have been battling Hamas fighters holding out in towns around the northern end of the enclave for the past month, the military said.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in which militants stormed border communities from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Its military campaign, with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas, has levelled swathes of the enclave, driving most people from their homes, and killing 45,658 Palestinians according to the Gaza health ministry.
Severe winter weather has caused bitter hardship to hundreds of thousands who are sheltering in makeshift tent encampments.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been trying to mediate a deal for a ceasefire and hostage release for a year with no success.
They are making another push this month before Trump’s inauguration.
Ceasefire efforts have continually stumbled on a fundamental disagreement over how to end the conflict.
Hamas says it will accept an agreement and release the hostages only if Israel commits to ending the war.
Israel says it will agree to stop fighting only after Hamas is destroyed.
On Friday, Hamas said it wanted “a complete ceasefire, the withdrawal of occupation forces from the Gaza Strip” and the return of displaced people to their homes in all areas of the enclave.
U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly called for a ceasefire agreement.
Trump has warned that if there is not a deal to release the hostages before his inauguration, “all hell is going to break out”.
Israel’s military has entered nearly every part of Gaza but is still fighting Hamas militants who are waging guerrilla warfare across the ruins of the tiny enclave.
Over autumn, Israel’s military resumed intense combat in northern Gaza.
In late December. single-day casualties announced by the Gaza Health Ministry included 48 on December 28, 58 on December 22 and 77 on December 20.
The toll rose by 1,124 in December, compared to 1,170 in November and 1,621 in October according to ministry figures.
Israel’s military said that strikes on Thursday targeted Hamas militants in the southern city of Khan Younis and the Mawasi camp for displaced people.
Asked about Thursday’s reported toll, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said that it has followed international law in waging the war in Gaza and taken “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.
(With inputs from Reuters)
