In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, a strike on a house killed 11, while another killed six, including a local journalist, in a house in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics told Reuters.

Five others were killed in separate strikes in the south.

Residents in the central town of Deir Al-Balah said that Israeli tanks advanced further from the east and blocked some roads connecting the city, which houses around 1 million residents and displaced Palestinians, with the nearby Khan Younis in the south, as reported by Reuters.

Israeli tanks have also advanced to the west in Al-Karara and Hamad areas of Khan Younis, pushing more families out of their shelters and tents, sometimes under heavy fire from tanks and drones, residents said.
Some families slept on the roads, others on the beach after they failed to find shelter.

In its latest update, the Palestinian health ministry said Thursday that the death toll in Gaza has reached 40,265 people since Israel started its war on the strip.

The toll included 42 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to ministry figures, which also listed 93,144 people as wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.

Lingering talks
 

The escalation comes hours after US President Joe Biden pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas as talks on a truce faltered.

In a statement on X, Biden said he "made clear that we must bring the ceasefire and hostage release deal to closure and discussed upcoming talks in Cairo to remove any remaining obstacles."

Netanyahu has reportedly disagreed on a key sticking point — the removal of Israeli troops from the border between Gaza and Egypt.

His office confirmed the phone conversation, without elaborating on its content.

"The chances for a deal are slim"; however, attempts were being made to hold talks in Cairo on Friday and Saturday, Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported citing officials knowledgeable about the negotiations.

The officials said that Netanyahu insisted on an Israeli army presence along the Philadelphi (Salah Al-Din) Corridor and that the United States demanded a significant withdrawal of troops in two stages.

"The Americans understood the mistake" made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he announced during his visit to Israel that Netanyahu had accepted a US proposal to bring the two sides closer and that "the ball was now in Hamas's court," the Israeli newspaper said.

Moreover, Times of Israel quoted sources familiar with the talks saying there was no point in holding the next meeting in Cairo this week unless Washington pushed Netanyahu to drop his new demands.

The sources added that Blinken’s announcement of Netanyahu's acceptance “inaccurately portrayed Hamas as the party obstructing the deal,” holding Blinken responsible for the diminishing chances of reaching an agreement in Cairo.

Hamas on Sunday said the US proposal "responds to Netanyahu's conditions," including his refusal of a ceasefire and a complete troop withdrawal from Gaza and his insistence on keeping control of the Netzarim Corridor, which separates the north and the south of the enclave, the Rafah border crossing, and the Philadelphi Corridor.