By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli forces bombarded houses in overnight attacks in the northern Gaza Strip, including one airstrike that killed at least 15 people in a home sheltering displaced people in the town of Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics said on Monday.
The three barely operational hospitals in the area were unable to cope with the wounded from the attack, and a number of other people were still missing with rescue workers unable to reach them, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said.
Residents said clusters of houses were bombed and some set ablaze in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, three towns on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip where the Israeli army has been operating for weeks.
They said Israeli drones had also dropped bombs outside a school sheltering displaced families in Beit Lahiya, part of what residents have described as a campaign to scare people into leaving.
Palestinians say Israel's army is trying to drive people out of the northern edge of Gaza with forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli army denies this and says it has returned to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping in an area where it had previously cleared them out.
Israel launched its campaign in the densely populated Palestinian enclave after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's military campaign has killed more than 44,400 Palestinians and displaced most of the population, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of the enclave lie in ruins.
A former Israeli defense minister accused Israel on Sunday of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, drawing a sharp rebuke from government ranks.
Moshe Yaalon, a hawkish former general, told Israeli media that hardliners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right cabinet were looking to chase Palestinians from northern Gaza and wanted to re-establish Jewish settlements there.
On Monday, the Israeli military rejected what it called Yaalon's serious claims.
"The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) operates in accordance with international law, and evacuates civilians based on operational necessity, for their own protection," it said.
Palestinian and United Nations officials said there were no safe areas in the Gaza Strip for the 2.3 million population, most of whom have been internally displaced.
Ten other Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli strikes across the enclave, medics said, raising the death toll on Monday to 25.
NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH
Israel agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week that halted fighting in a conflict that has unfolded in Lebanon in parallel with the Gaza war.
But the Gaza war itself has ground on with only a single ceasefire more than a year ago lasting for a week.
Officials in Cairo have hosted talks between Hamas and the rival Fatah group led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the possible establishment of a committee to run post-war Gaza.
Egypt has proposed that a committee made up of non-partisan technocrat figures, and supervised by Abbas' Western-backed Palestinian Authority, should be ready to run Gaza straight after the war ends. Israel has said Hamas should have no role in governance.
An official close to the talks said progress had been made but no final deal had been reached. Israel's approval would be decisive in determining whether the committee could fulfill its role.
Egyptian security officials have also held talks with Hamas on ways to reach a ceasefire with Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters Hamas stood by its condition that any agreement must bring an end to the war and involve an Israeli troop withdrawal, but Hamas would show the flexibility needed to achieve that.
Israel has said the war will end only when Hamas no longer governs Gaza and poses no threat to Israelis.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday there was some indication of progress towards a deal to free Israeli hostages, but that Israel's conditions for ending the war had not changed.
Later on Monday, Hamas's armed wing said at least 33 hostages had been killed since the war started, blaming their deaths on Israel's failure to agree to its demands, without disclosing their nationalities.
It added that some other hostages had gone missing.
"With the continuation of your crazy war," it said in a statement addressed to Israel, "you could lose your hostages forever. Do what you have to do before it is too late," the group said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he thought the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal were now more likely.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi;additional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem and Jaidaa Taha in Cairo; editing by Timothy Heritage, Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)