Gaza fighting fierce, Hamas stops evacuation of foreigners

Close-quarter combat is happening in Gaza Sunday with Israel's army saying it hit a military compound while the Hamas terrorist group accused soldiers of striking a refugee camp that killed 30 people.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli forces were fighting "hard" in south and north of Gaza City and had "entered populated areas."

Israeli troops were seen engaged in house-to-house battles as tanks and armored bulldozers churned through the sand in footage released by the army on the campaign to tighten the encirclement of Gaza City.

The military said it had launched "a targeted raid" to map tunnels and clear explosive traps in southern Gaza, where it has struck before but rarely sent in troops.

"The troops encountered a terrorist cell exiting a tunnel shaft. In response, the troops fired shells toward the terrorists and killed them," it said.

Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi visited troops inside Gaza on Saturday after they encircled "the center of the Hamas terror organization," which lies to the north of the Al-Maghazi camp hit overnight Saturday.

At least 45 people have been killed in the camp, the Hamas-run health ministry said Sunday in an updated death toll.

A military spokesperson said they were looking into whether their forces had been operating in the area at the time of the bombing to verify Hamas' claim.

No ceasefire

Leaflets dropped by the army again urged Gaza City residents to evacuate south between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Calls for a ceasefire from Arab countries and desperate civilians after 30 days of war fell on deaf ears.

Netanyahu rebuffed proposals of a truce until the Islamist group releases all of more than 240 Israeli and foreign hostages abducted by Hamas during its 7 October attack of Israel.

In Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv, several thousand protesters took to the streets on Saturday evening, including relatives and friends of some of the hostages, chanting: "Bring them home now."

"I expect and demand from my government, think out of the box," said Hadas Kalderon, who said five members of her family were among the kidnapped.

"I find myself in hell," she said. "Every day I wake up to another day of war. A war for the life of my children."

International pressure is growing on Israel to agree to humanitarian pauses in the Gaza fighting, but hostages' loved-ones said they should be released as a precondition.

Foreigner evacuation halted

Hamas said late Saturday the evacuation of dual nationals and foreigners from Gaza was being suspended until Israel lets some wounded Palestinians reach Rafah, so they can cross the border for hospital treatment in Egypt.

"No foreign passport holder will be able to leave the Gaza Strip until wounded people who need to be evacuated from hospitals in north Gaza are transported through the Rafah crossing" to Egypt, the official said on condition of anonymity.

On Friday, a senior White House official accused Hamas of abusing a US-brokered deal to open the crossing to get its fighters out of Gaza.

The official said that one-third of the names on a list provided by Hamas of Palestinians needing medical evacuation were those of Hamas members and fighters.