Israeli strikes kill 60 Palestinians in Gaza

• Israeli military approves 'framework' for new offensive
• Hamas holds more ceasefire negotiations in Egypt
• Aid entering Gaza remains far from sufficient: UN

Israeli planes and tanks bombed multiple areas across the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing at least 60 Palestinians, including 25 aid seekers, according to residents and medical officials.

Hamas' chief negotiator, meanwhile, held talks with Egyptian mediators over a potential ceasefire, while Israel struck the territory's main city prior to a planned takeover and again invited Palestinians to leave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated an idea - also enthusiastically floated by US President Donald Trump - that Palestinians should simply leave the enclave housing more than 2 million people after nearly two years of conflict.

"They're not being pushed out, they'll be allowed to exit," he told Israeli television channel i24NEWS. "All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us."

Armed forces chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir "approved the main framework for the IDF's operational plan in the Gaza Strip," a statement released by the Israeli army said.

Arabs and many world leaders are aghast at the idea of displacing the Gaza population, which Palestinians say would be like another "Nakba" (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced out during a 1948 war.

Israeli planes and tanks bombed eastern areas of Gaza City heavily, residents said yesterday, with many homes destroyed in the Zeitoun and Shejaia neighbourhoods overnight.

At least 60 Palestinians, including at least 25 aid seekers, were killed in the strikes, reports Al Jazeera online. Al-Ahli hospital said 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a home in Zeitoun.

Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Younis in south Gaza too, while in the centre Israeli gunfire killed nine aid-seekers in two separate incidents, Palestinian medics said. Israel's military did not comment.

Hamas chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya's meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo were to focus on stopping the offensive, delivering aid and "ending the suffering of our people in Gaza," Hamas official Taher al-Nono said in a statement.

Egyptian security sources said the talks would also discuss the possibility of a comprehensive ceasefire that would see Hamas relinquish governance in Gaza and concede its weapons.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group was open to all ideas if Israel pulls out. However, "Laying down arms before the occupation is dismissed is impossible," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, the United Nations and Palestinians said aid entering Gaza remains far from sufficient, as the humanitarian crisis in the enclave had reached "unimaginable levels".

The Israeli military yesterday said that nearly 320 trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings and that a further nearly 320 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and international organizations in the past 24 hours along with three tankers of fuel and 97 pallets of air-dropped aid.