GAZA CITY: Israel’s military said Tuesday that it had expanded its operations in Gaza, where residents reported fierce gunfire and shelling days before a planned trip to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The intensified operations came after days of mounting calls for a ceasefire, with US President Donald Trump — whom Netanyahu is scheduled to meet next week — among those urging Israel to strike a new deal to halt the war and bring home the hostages still held in Gaza.
Gaza’s civil defense agency reported that Israeli forces killed at least 20 people on Tuesday. In response to reports of deadly strikes in the north and south of the territory, the Israeli army told AFP it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities.”

I believe that every time negotiations or a potential ceasefire are mentioned, the (Israeli) army escalates crimes and massacres on the ground

Raafat Halles, 39, Shujaiya district

Separately, it said Tuesday morning that in recent days it had “expanded its operations to additional areas within the Gaza Strip, eliminating dozens of terrorists and dismantling hundreds of terror infrastructure sites both above and below ground.”
Raafat Halles, 39, from the Shujaiya district of Gaza City, said “air strikes and shelling have intensified over the past week,” and tanks have been advancing.
“I believe that every time negotiations or a potential ceasefire are mentioned, the army escalates crimes and massacres on the ground,” he said. “I don’t know why.”
Amer Daloul, a 44-year-old resident of Gaza City, also reported fiercer clashes between Israeli forces and militants in recent days, telling AFP that he and his family were forced to flee the tent they were living in at dawn on Tuesday “due to heavy and random gunfire and shelling.”
AFP photographers saw Israeli tanks deploying at the Gaza border in southern Israel and children picking through the rubble of a destroyed home in Gaza City.
Others photographed Palestinians mourning over the bodies of relatives in the city’s Al-Shifa hospital and the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.
Netanyahu announced he would visit Trump and senior US security officials next week, amid mounting pressure to end more than 20 months of devastating fighting in Gaza.
Trump vowed Tuesday to be “very firm” in his stance on ending the war when he meets the Israeli premier on July 7.
“But he (Netanyahu) wants it too.... He wants to end it too,” the US president added.
Hamas official Taher Al-Nunu told AFP the group is “ready to agree to any proposal if it will lead to an end to the war and a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of occupation forces.”
“So far, there has been no breakthrough.”