Israeli forces step up Gaza bombardment

• Gaza ministry records four more hunger-related deaths
• Egypt making latest push for ceasefire talks
• NGOs say new Israeli rules keep them from delivering aid 

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.

Residents and medics said eight people were killed when Israeli tank shelling hit a house in Zeitoun neighbourhood, while a man was killed in an airstrike on a building in the nearby Shejaia suburb. Two other people were killed in tank shelling in Tuffah, a third Gaza City suburb.

Local health authorities said they had received desperate calls from families trapped in the Zeitoun area, including from people saying they were wounded, and that ambulance vehicles could not reach them.

"The explosions are almost non-stop in eastern Gaza areas, mainly Zeitoun and Shejaia. The occupation (Israel) is erasing homes there, as we hear from some friends who live nearby," said Ismail, 40, from Gaza City.

"At night, we pray for our safety as the sounds of explosions get louder and closer. We hope Egypt can secure a ceasefire deal before we are all dead," he told Reuters via a chat app.

More than 22 months into Israel's military offensive in Gaza, residents have also been grappling with a worsening hunger crisis, reports Reuters.

Four more people died of starvation and malnutrition in the territory in the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said yesterday. That took the total to 239, including 106 children, since the offensive began, it said.

In an effort to avert the planned military escalation, Egypt has been trying to revive a push for a ceasefire in Gaza, hosting a Hamas delegation led by the group's chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya.

He told mediators in Cairo on Wednesday that Hamas was ready to resume ceasefire talks to achieve a temporary truce, and was open to discussing a comprehensive agreement that would end the war, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said.

Meanwhile, new Israeli legislation regulating foreign aid groups has been increasingly used to deny their requests to bring supplies into Gaza, according to a joint letter signed by more than 100 groups published yesterday.

According to the letter, whose signatories include Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), at least 60 requests to bring aid into Gaza were rejected in July alone.

Ties between foreign-backed aid groups and the Israeli government have long been beset by tensions, with officials often complaining the organisations are biased, reports AFP.

The rocky relations have only gotten more strained in the wake of Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023.

"Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organisations are 'not authorised to deliver aid'," the joint statement reads.