Adding to the uncertainty, Arab mediators and the United States have struggled to bridge gaps between Hamas and Israel to restore the cease-fire and to bring about exchanges of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Over the course of the war, Palestinians have endured a marathon of hope and heartbreak as mediators have expressed optimism about talks only for a deal to remain elusive, or fall apart completely.
On Thursday, President Trump suggested that a new agreement could be in the offing. “We’re getting close to getting them back,” Mr. Trump told reporters at a meeting of his cabinet, referring to hostages.
The American president did not offer specific details, and representatives for Hamas and the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel did not immediately return requests for comment.
The military said its recent campaign had dismantled weapons infrastructure and killed militants. On Thursday, the Israeli military said that a day earlier in Gaza City’s Shajaiye neighborhood it had killed a Hamas commander who had participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Hamas did not comment on the claim.
The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency rescue service under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, said that 23 people had been killed in strikes in Shajaiye on Wednesday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. Israel has said that Hamas embeds in civilian areas, though legal experts say that it still has an obligation to protect civilians.
“The Israel Defense Forces is acting with great force in your areas to destroy the terrorist infrastructure,” Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesman for the military, said on Friday, announcing the evacuation orders for eastern Gaza City.
The Israeli offensive has included evacuation orders encompassing roughly half of the territory, according to a New York Times analysis of Israeli military maps. Satellite imagery also shows that the Israeli military is taking over Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, with forces closing in from two directions.
More than 1,500 people in Gaza have been killed since the cease-fire fell apart and more than 50,000 people have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry also does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its casualty counts. Doctors at hospitals have said many of those wounded and killed in recent weeks have been children.
The United Nations said Friday that Israel’s actions in Gaza increasingly threatened the ability of Palestinians to continue living in the territory. Since mid-March, Israel has issued 21 evacuation orders to Palestinians in Gaza and launched some 224 attacks on Gaza residential buildings and tents, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, told reporters on Friday.
“The death, the destruction, the displacement, the denial of access to basic necessities within Gaza and the repeated suggestion that Gazans should leave the territory entirely raise real concerns as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza,” she said.
Nick Cumming-Bruce contributed reporting.
