Heavy fighting rages across Gaza as Qatar warns ‘window narrowing’ for new hostage deal

Israel pressed ahead with its offensive on Sunday after US blocked the latest international push for a ceasefire

Heavy fighting raged across Gaza on Sunday as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the US blocked the latest international push for a ceasefire.

Thirteen of the 15-member UN security council voted in favour of calling for a ceasefire on Friday – but the United States vetoed the resolution and Britain abstained, arguing that the wording failed to condemn the Hamas attack on 7 October. The US had since pushed through an emergency sale of more than $100m (£79m) worth of tank ammunition to Israel.

Qatar has warned that the continued bombardment is “narrowing the window” for a new hostage deal after hostilities resumed last week.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it will be all but impossible to improve the “catastrophic” health situation in Gaza, just as the board passed an emergency motion to provide more medical access.

Israeli soldiers were in the Shajaiya district of Gaza city on Sunday (Reuters)

Israel’s air and ground war in response to deadly Hamas attacks has killed more than 17,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities, and forced some 1.9 million to flee their homes.

On Sunday, the Israeli military clashed with opposition in the devastated north of the Gaza Strip, where neighbourhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where ground troops have operated for more than six weeks. Residents also said there was still heavy fighting in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Shijaiyah and the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people have remained, fearing that the south would be no safer.

An Israeli government spokesman said ‘increasing numbers’ of Hamas fighters were surrendering (Reuters)

Israel’s Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear, hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man walked forward and placed a gun on the ground.

Other videos have shown groups of unarmed men held in similar conditions, without clothes, bound and blindfolded. Detainees from a group who were released on Saturday said they had been beaten and denied food and water.

Israel has not commented on the allegations of mistreatment but Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, said “increasing numbers” of Hamas fighters were surrendering. Levy also called allegations of mass displacement from Gaza “outrageous and false.”

Israeli troops prepare weapons by the border fence before entering the Gaza Strip on Sunday (AFP via Getty Images)

The reports of continued fighting come as WHO warns of the “catastrophic” health crisis in the besieged territory.

Palestinian officials say Israel’s assault has left most of the population homeless, with little electricity, food or clean water, and a medical system facing collapse.

A WHO database shows there have been 449 attacks on healthcare facilities in Palestinian territories since 7 October, without assigning blame.

Palestinian politician Dr Mustafa Barghouti warned that “half of Gaza is now starving” and that 350,000 people had infections.

He said many were suffering from stomach complaints because there was little clean water and not enough fuel to use to boil it, risking outbreaks of dysentery, typhoid and cholera.

Smoke rises from northern Gaza as seen from the Israeli side of the border on Sunday (Getty Images)

“To add insult to injury, we have 46,000 injured people who cannot be treated properly because most of the hospitals are not functioning,” he said.

While the WHO board passed an emergency motion to secure more medical access, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it would be “almost impossible” to improve the current situation.

The emergency action seeks passage into Gaza for medical personnel and supplies and requires the WHO to document violence against healthcare workers and patients and to secure funding to rebuild hospitals.

The rare motion was criticised by Israel, which has said it puts disproportionate focus on Israel and does not address what it describes as Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields, by placing command centres and weapons inside hospitals.

Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told a gathering at the Doha Forum conference on Sunday it will continue to pressure Israel and Hamas for a truce despite “narrowing” chances.

But US secretary of state Antony Blinken told ABC following the UN vote: “When it comes to a ceasefire in this moment, with Hamas still alive, still intact ... that would simply perpetuate the problem.”