Israel has been pounding Gaza’s largest medical complex, levelling whole blocks and sending terrified patients scrambling for safety as its army continued a ground operation to seize Gaza City.
Doctors inside al-Shifa Hospital on Sunday described “horrific scenes” as many were forced to flee despite needing urgent care. Hasan al-Sha’ir, the hospital’s medical director, said that staff have continued to work “despite the harsh conditions and overwhelming fear”.
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According to al-Sha’ir, at least 100 patients are receiving treatment in “extremely difficult circumstances”, with shortages of life-saving drugs and medical equipment.
Researchers at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights confirmed Israel’s use of fire belts, which are incendiary weapons that cause flames to rise across a strip of land. The military also deployed explosive-laden vehicles around the hospital as military units advanced from the northern and eastern sides of the facility.
According to medical sources cited by the Palestinian Wafa news agency, the Israeli army shelled another medical facility, the Al Helou Hospital in Gaza City, which hosts a cancer ward and a neonatal unit where 12 premature babies are being cared for.
Medical staff told Wafa that more than 90 people, including doctors, nurses and patients, remained trapped inside the hospital as Israeli tanks surrounded the facility, blocking both entry and exit.
The Israeli army on Sunday also bombed a multistorey building, the Mecca Tower, after issuing an evacuation threat for the Remal and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City, as well as the port area and parts of Beirut Street.
At least 50 multistorey buildings have been destroyed in recent weeks as Israeli forces press their assault on the city, flattening entire blocks that once housed thousands of people.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud described the attacks in Gaza City as “massive” and “relentless”.
“They’re a mix of heavy artillery, drone strikes [and] quake bombs that are dropped on areas and destroy the very foundations of buildings,” he said.
The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement on Sunday that it had lost contact with two of the captives taken from Israel during the Palestinian armed group’s attacks on October 7, 2023.
“The risk that those captives have gone missing under rubble is very high, given that that area has been subjected to relentless bombardment in recent days,” Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud said.
Diplomatic push to end the war
As the death toll since October 2023 in Gaza tops 66,000, the past few days have seen increasing talk of a diplomatic resolution to the nearly two-year-old war that a UN inquiry panel dubbed genocide.
US President Donald Trump said in an interview with the Reuters news agency that he hoped to finalise a Gaza peace plan proposal in a meeting on Monday with Israel’s prime minister.
Trump said he had received a “very good response” from Israel and Arab leaders to the Gaza peace plan proposal, and that “everybody wants to make a deal”. Hamas said the group had not yet received any proposal from Trump, nor from mediators.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is working on a ceasefire plan on the eve of his meeting with Trump.
“We’re working on it,” Netanyahu said. “It’s not been finalised yet, but we’re working with President Trump’s team, actually, as we speak, and I hope we can – we can make it a go.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Hamas must lay down its arms or be defeated. He told Fox News on Sunday that he was willing to negotiate a deal in which Hamas leaders would be escorted out of Gaza.
Hamas has said it will not give up its weapons as long as Palestinians are struggling for a state, and has refused any expulsion of its leaders from Gaza.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II expressed optimism about Trump’s proposal, saying many of its details align with “what has been agreed upon”. The details of the 21-point plan for Gaza that was presented to Arab and Muslim leaders on Tuesday have not been disclosed, but the plan is reportedly designed to bar Hamas from any future role in governing the territory.
It is also said to include a promise from Trump that Israel will not annex the occupied West Bank, and involves military contributions from Arab and Muslim countries to guarantee security.
US Vice President JD Vance has expressed cautious optimism over the deal. “I feel more optimistic about where we are right now than where we have been at any point in the last few months,” Vance said in an interview with Fox News. “But let’s be realistic, these things can get derailed at the very last minute. So while I remain very hopeful, I am cautiously hopeful.”
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the original draft deal was changed after Trump’s meeting with Arab leaders to reflect Palestinian requests.
While Trump is for the first time “talking seriously about the Palestinian state”, several questions remain unanswered, Bishara said.
“Where is that Palestinian state? Will it be sovereign? Will it include Gaza and the West Bank and East Jerusalem? None of that is mentioned there, but there are a number of elements to the liking of those other participants who want to see a pathway to a Palestinian state.”
