Israel’s defence minister yesterday approved a plan for the conquest of Gaza City and authorised the call-up of around 60,000 reservists, piling pressure on Hamas as mediators push for a ceasefire.

The survey was taken amid hopes that Israel and Hamas would agree on a ceasefire

Israel will call up around 60,000 reservists

Mediators were awaiting an Israeli response yesterday to a fresh Gaza ceasefire plan, a day after Hamas accepted the proposal and signalled its readiness for a new round of talks aimed at ending nearly two years of war.

Says Egyptian source; Ceasefire would include Palestinian prisoner release

A Hamas source told AFP yesterday that the Palestinian group had agreed to a new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, devastated by more than 22 months of war between the group and Israel.

Efforts by mediators Egypt and Qatar, along with the United States, have so far failed to secure a lasting ceasefire in the ongoing war

A spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs expressed concern over Israel's plans to relocate people to southern Gaza saying it would only increase suffering.

The UN human rights office said that at least 1,760 Palestinians had been killed while seeking aid in Gaza since late May, a jump of several hundred since its last published figure at the beginning of August.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Israeli authorities to immediately halt the advancement of plans of settlement construction in the E1 area of the occupied West Bank, said the UN chief’s spokesperson.

The Israeli military said yesterday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels claiming responsibility for the attack.

Israeli forces demolished houses in eastern areas of Gaza City yesterday, with aerial and tank fire killing at least 23 people, according to local health authorities, as the Palestinian group Hamas told mediators it was ready to resume ceasefire talks.

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.

The 24-hour death toll was the worst in a week and added to the massive fatalities from the nearly two-year war

Israeli planes and tanks bombarded eastern areas of Gaza City yesterday, killing at least 20 people, witnesses and medics said, with Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya arrived in Cairo for talks to revive a US-backed ceasefire plan.

Condemnations poured in from the United Nations and media rights groups yesterday after an Israeli strike killed an Al Jazeera news team in Gaza, as Palestinians mourned the journalists and Israel accused one of them of being a Hamas militant.

'The secretary-general calls for an independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings,' said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric

Two of its correspondents and three cameramen were killed in an Israeli strike on their tent in Gaza City

The Qatari broadcaster said three other of its journalists were also killed, and an official at nearby Shifa Hospital said there were seven people killed in total

Israeli strikes across the besieged Gaza Strip yesterday killed at least 39 Palestinians as the death toll from Israeli-induced starvation since the offensive began rose to 217, including 100 children.