Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered to let the leaders of Hamas leave Gaza but demanded the group abandoned its arms, as his country kept up its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.
An Israeli airstrike that hit a house and a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians killed at least eight people this morning, including five children, the Gaza civil defence agency said.
The attack in Khan Younis came on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Israel resumed large-scale bombing in the Palestinian territory on 18 March and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas.
Mr Netanyahu rejected claims Israel was not engaging in negotiations aimed at releasing hostages held in Gaza and insisted military pressure on Hamas was proving effective.
"We are negotiating under fire ... We can see cracks beginning to appear," he said at the beginning of a cabinet meeting.
"Hamas must lay down its arms. Its leaders will be allowed to leave," Mr Netanyahu added.
"The military pressure is working," he said, adding Israel's strategy was weakening Hamas and increasing pressure for hostage releases.
Hamas has expressed a willingness to hand over Gaza's administration but warned disarming is a "red line".
Egypt, Qatar and the United States are attempting to again broker a ceasefire and secure the release of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
A senior Hamas official stated yesterday that the group had approved a new ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators and urged Israel to support it.
Mr Netanyahu's office confirmed receipt of the proposal and stated that Israel had submitted a counterproposal in response.
However, the details of the latest mediation efforts remain undisclosed.
Gaza medics and witnesses reported that Israeli attacks continued in Khan Younis and some other parts of Gaza throughout the day.
An Israeli attack in the southern city of Rafah wounded two children, according to medics.
Mr Netanyahu said Israeli forces were working towards a plan proposed by US President Donald Trump to displace all of Gaza's 2.4 million people to other countries.
He said Israel would ensure overall security in Gaza and "enable the implementation of the Trump plan".
Mr Trump proposed that Palestinians in Gaza be removed from the territory which would then be owned by the United States and redeveloped, with no right of return for the Palestinians.
He later said he was "not forcing" the widely condemned plan but would "sit back and recommend it".
Bodies of Red Crescent personnel recovered
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it recovered the bodies of 15 rescuers killed a week ago when, it said, Israeli forces targeted ambulances in Gaza.
Bodies of eight medics from the Red Crescent, six members of Gaza's civil defence agency and one employee of a UN agency were retrieved, the Red Crescent said in a statement.
It said one medic from the Red Crescent remained missing.
The group said those killed "were targeted by the Israeli occupation forces while performing their humanitarian duties as they were heading to the Hashashin area of Rafah to provide first aid to a number of people injured by Israeli shelling in the area".
In an earlier statement the Red Crescent said the bodies "were recovered with difficulty as they were buried in the sand, with some showing signs of decomposition".
Gaza's civil defence agency also confirmed that 15 bodies had been recovered, adding that the deceased UN employee was from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.
The incident occurred on 23 March in Rafah city's Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood, close to the Egyptian border, just days after the military resumed its bombardments of Gaza following an almost two-month-long truce.
The Red Crescent accused Israeli authorities yesterday of refusing to allow search operations to locate its crew.
The Israeli military acknowledged its troops had opened fire on ambulances.
It told AFP in a statement this week that its forces had "opened fire toward Hamas vehicles and eliminated several Hamas terrorists".
"A few minutes afterwards, additional vehicles advanced suspiciously toward the troops" who "responded by firing toward the suspicious vehicles", it said, adding that several "terrorists" were killed.
"Some of the suspicious vehicles ... were ambulances and fire trucks," the military statement said, citing "an initial inquiry" into the incident.
It condemned "the repeated use" by "terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip of ambulances for terrorist purposes".
Hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli attacks since the fighting restarted, with the territory's health ministry reporting yesterday that at least 921 people had been killed.
The fighting was sparked by Hamas' 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza against has killed at least 50,277 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory's health ministry.
The resumption of the war in Gaza has also prompted the Houthi group in Yemen to resume launching missiles and drones at Israel.
The Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen "prior to crossing into Israeli territory".
The Houthis have said they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinian people and have also attacked shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on the same basis.
Meanwhile, Mr Netanyahu's office said he would visit Hungary on 2 April for a multi-day trip in defiance of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court against the Israeli prime minister for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán publicly extended an invitation to Mr Netanyahu in November shortly after the ICC issued the warrant.
