Israeli continued clashes across the Gaza Strip on Monday as doubts grew over a plan for a cease-fire and hostage release deal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden on Friday presented what he labeled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the conflict, free all hostages and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power.
However, Netanyahu's office stressed Saturday that Israel would push on with its brutal war until all of its "goals are achieved" including the destruction of Hamas's military and governing capabilities.
Israeli media have questioned to what extent Biden's speech and some crucial details were coordinated with Netanyahu's team, including how long any truce would hold and how many captives would be freed when.
Mediators United States, Qatar and Egypt later said they called "on both Hamas and Israel to finalize the agreement embodying the principles outlined by President Joe Biden."
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Sunday that "we have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal ... that Israel would say yes."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken "commended" Israel on the plan in a phone call with war cabinet member Benny Gantz and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the State Department said.
But for now, the bombardments and combat showed no sign of easing in Israel's Gaza war soon entering its ninth month that has devastated the Palestinian coastal territory of 2.4 million people.
On Monday the Israeli military said that over the past day, its forces had struck "over 50 targets in the Gaza Strip."
Gaza hospitals on Monday reported at least 19 people killed in overnight strikes.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's Oct. 7 incursion, which resulted in the deaths of 1,190 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Resistance members also took about 250 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel's genocidal military operation since has killed at least 36,439 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, the local Health Ministry said Sunday.
Heavy fighting has raged especially in Gaza's far-southern Rafah area near the Egyptian border, where most civilians have now been displaced once more, according to U.N. agencies.
Airstrikes and artillery shelling were reported in Rafah, mainly in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, as well as in Gaza City, witnesses told AFP.
Gaza's European hospital said 10 people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house near the main southern city of Khan Younis.
And six people were reported killed in a strike on a family home in the central Bureij refugee camp, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
U.N. and other aid agencies have warned for months of the looming risk of famine in the besieged territory.
At a hospital in Deir al-Balah, 33-year-old Amira al-Taweel told AFP that her frail son, suffering from malnutrition, "needs treatment and milk, but there's none available in Gaza."
Israel's seizure last month of the Rafah crossing has further slowed sporadic aid deliveries for Gaza's people and effectively closed its main exit point on the Egyptian border.
Cairo refuses to coordinate with Israel humanitarian deliveries through Rafah, but has agreed to send some aid via Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing.
