Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has overruled an order by his defence minister to build a field hospital in Israel to treat sick Gaza children, officials have said.
The decision was a new sign of divisions within Mr Netanyahu's ruling coalition over its handling of the war in Gaza in the face of persistent international criticism of the high civilian toll.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced this week that he had ordered the building of a "temporary hospital" in Israel to treat sick children from Gaza.
Mr Gallant discussed the project in a call with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, a government statement said yesterday.
Reports said the hospital would be built close to Israel's border with Gaza to help children suffering from cancer, diabetes and other illnesses who could not get treatment in the Palestinian territory.
But the prime minister's office announced suddenly that Mr Netanyahu "does not approve the establishment of a hospital for Gazans within Israeli territory - therefore, it will not be established".
An Israeli official told AFP the defence ministry first asked the prime minister's office two weeks ago "to speed up the evacuation of patients, especially sick children", from Gaza.
"No response was received, so the minister issued an order to the army to establish a field hospital within Israeli territory as an immediate solution for sick children.
"The prime minister cancelled the order and, for political reasons, blocked a humanitarian solution," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Israel bombards Gaza, pushes tanks further into Rafah
Israel today killed at least 21 Palestinians during bombardments of long-standing refugee camps in the centre of the Gaza Strip and attacks on Gaza City in the north.
Meanwhile, its tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south.
Health officials said that a barrage of airstrikes killed 16 people in Zawayda town, the Bureij and Nuseirat camps, and the overcrowded city of Deir-Al-Balah.
Deir-Al-Balah is the only major urban centre in Gaza which Israeli troops have not invaded.
Medics said that five Palestinians were killed in two separate strikes on Gaza City.
The Israeli military claimed that it had killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders in those two airstrikes, including one whom it said had taken part in the 7 October attack in southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
Hamas led the October attack in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
In Rafah today, residents said that Israeli tanks advanced deeper in the western side of the city and took up positions on a hilltop.
The Israeli military said that it had located several tunnels and killed several gunmen.
At Al-Amal Hospital in southern Gaza, Palestinian health officials exhumed at least 12 bodies to rebury them at another location.
Areej Hamouda, a mother of one of the dead, clutched some of the sandy earth from the grave of her son and kissed it before medics exhumed the body.
"He had a loaf of bread with him, which he had to beg for to get for his daughter, they shot him in the eye and the head," she said, weeping.
'Stretched to breaking point'
The fighting has pushed the 60-bed Red Cross field hospital in Rafah to its limit, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
"The repeated mass casualty events resulting from the unrelenting hostilities have stretched to breaking point the response capacity of our hospital – and all health facilities in southern Gaza," said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC's Gaza team.
More than a million people had sought shelter in Rafah from fighting further north.
Most have been forced out by the Israeli offensive in and around the city, which was launched in May to root out brigades of the militant group Hamas operating there.
More than nine months into the war, Hamas can still attack Israeli forces on the ground, occasionally firing rocket barrages into Israel.
Islamic Jihad said that it had fired missiles at two southern Israeli communities today.
The number of Palestinians killed in the past nine months has climbed to at least 38,848, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Almost 90,000 have been injured, it added.
Israel said that 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza.
On Tuesday, Israel said it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas' military wing and killed or captured about 14,000 fighters since the start of the war. Israel says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza.
Hamas doesn't release figures of casualties among its ranks and said Israel was exaggerating to portray a "fake victory".
Read more: Israel 'weaponising Gaza water supply causing' - report
Mediation efforts stalled
Diplomatic efforts by Arab mediators to halt the hostilities, backed by the US, appear on hold, though all sides say they are open to more talks, including Israel and Hamas.
A deal would aim to end the war and release Israeli hostages in Gaza in return for many Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Foreign leaders, including US President Joe Biden, have urged that an end to fighting in Gaza should lead to a post-war plan with a firm timeline for establishing a Palestinian state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and right-wing parties are against a two-state solution.
Israel's parliament, the Knesset, yesterday passed a statement of opposition to establishment of a Palestinian state 68-9, claiming it would pose an existential danger to Israel and perpetuate Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel yesterday released 13 Palestinians detained during its war in Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement.
Many of the hundreds of Palestinians Israel has released in the past months have accused Israeli forces of ill treatment and torture.
The Palestinian Prisoner Association said nearly 20 Palestinians had died in Israeli detention. Israel denies allegations of torture.
