As many as 100,000 civilians are trapped in Israel's offensive in northern Gaza, Palestinians say.

Israeli tanks moved deep Monday into two northern Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp, trapping some 100,000 residents, Palestinian emergency officials said, in what the military said was an operation to end the regrouping of Hamas terrorists.

The Israeli army said the soldiers arrested about 100 suspected Hamas terrorists when they raided the Kamal Adwan hospital in the Jabalia camp. It did not provide evidence. Hamas and the doctors have denied the presence of soldiers in the hospital.

The Gaza Strip Health Ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and shelling on Monday, 13 of them north of the devastated coastal area.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were displaced in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical supplies or food. Reuters could not independently verify the number.

Emergency services say their operations have been halted by Israel's three-week offensive back in the north, an area where the military said it had annihilated Hamas fighters at the start of the year-long war.

As talks led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to end the shooting began on Sunday after several attempts to withdraw, the Egyptian president proposed an initial two-day agreement to exchange four Israeli hostages with Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, to be followed by talks between 10. the days of the end of war forever.

There has been no public comment from Israel or Hamas, who are sticking to irreconcilable ceasefire conditions.

The war in Gaza has sparked a wider conflict in the Middle East, raising fears of instability around the world, with Israeli forces attacking southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah from moving north of Israel in support of another Iran-backed terrorist group, Hamas, in Gaza.

It has also created a rare direct conflict between arch-Middle East foes Israel and Iran. Over the weekend, Israeli warplanes struck missile sites in Iran in retaliation for Oct. 1 Iranian missile volley at Israel.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Tehran would “use all available tools” to respond to Israel's attack over the weekend.

Israeli forces raided a hospital in northern Gaza

Three hospitals in North Gaza, where officials refused Israeli military orders to evacuate, said they were not working. At least two were injured by Israeli fire during the attack and they ran out of medical supplies, food and fuel.

At least one doctor, a nurse and two pediatric patients have reportedly died in those hospitals due to lack of treatment in the past week.

On Monday, the Gaza Ministry of Health said only one of about 70 medical staff – a pediatrician – was left at Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israel “arrested and expelled” others.

The Israeli military said that soldiers who raided the hospital “captured about 100 terrorists in the compound, including terrorists who tried to escape during the evacuation of civilians. Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terrorist bags and intelligence documents.”

Residents of North Gaza said the Israeli army had besieged schools and other places where displaced families live, ordering them to leave before gathering men and evacuating women and children from the area around Gaza City and to the south.

Only a few families are heading south to Gaza as most have preferred to temporarily relocate to Gaza City, fearing that they will never be able to reach their homes again.

Citizens write death notices

Some said they wrote their own obituaries in case they died as a result of the bombings, saying they would rather die than be deported.

“While the world is preoccupied with Lebanon and the new nonsense about a few days of ceasefire [in Gaza]Israeli attacks are destroying northern Gaza and driving its people out,” a resident of Jabalia told Reuters via chat app.

“(But) neither (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu nor Eiland will be able to get us out of northern Gaza.”

Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel's National Security Council, was the lead author of a highly controversial proposal called the “general strategy” that would see Israel quickly evacuate civilians from northern Gaza before destroying Hamas fighters by cutting off the water. and food supplies.

An Israeli tank attack this month has led to Palestinian suspicions that the army has embraced Eiland's idea, which it sees as a temporary measure to defeat Hamas in the north but Palestinians fear it is aimed at clearing the area for good to carve out a safe zone. soldiers after the war.

The Israeli military has denied pursuing such a plan. It says its forces operate in accordance with international law and targets terrorists hiding among civilians who use them as human shields, a charge Hamas denies.

North Gaza became the first part of the enclave to be attacked by Israel in the area after a Hamas attack crossed the border in Oct. 7, 2023, with heavy bombardment that destroyed cities like Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

Nevertheless, Hamas-led militants continue to attack Israeli forces with hit and run anti-tank rockets, mortar salvoes and bombs planted in buildings, streets and other areas where they expect Israeli forces to take up positions.

The war broke out after Hamas fighters raided southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 people, according to Israelis.

The death toll from Israeli air strikes and ground attacks on Gaza has reached 43,020, the Gaza Health Ministry said in an update on Monday, as the heavily populated area was reduced to rubble.