Fighting in Gaza intensified overnight, with reports indicating that Israeli forces were advancing around the southern towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, in what appeared to be an attempt to prevent Hamas from moving a soldier reported to have been captured.
It comes amid reports that Israel has pulled out of negotiations for a new truce, due to take place in Cairo on Saturday.
Reports from Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip and close to where Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin is thought to have been taken, indicated heavy civilian casualties from Israeli bombardments. Troops continued to clash with Hamas fighters.
Around 100 people in Rafah have been killed and hundreds more injured in Rafah since fighting restarted after the three hour break following the collapse of an internationally brokered ceasefire collapsed on Friday morning. At least a dozen have been killed elsewhere in Gaza and scores wounded. Local health officials said the main hospital in Rafah had to be evacuated because of shelling on Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Israel is unlikely to send a delegation to truce talks in Cairo as it presses on with its offensive in Gaza, reports quoting senior officials say. Palestinian and US delegations had been expected to arrive in Cairo on Saturday. The Palestinian delegation was reported to include Hamas, which controls Gaza, Fatah and other factions. The US team was expected to be led by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.
While Israel has not ruled out the possibility of a negotiated solution to this conflict, some believe it may also be considering a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, once it has destroyed the cross border tunnels and found the soldier. The Israeli military said Israel was already close to its objective.
Around 1,650 Palestinians have been killed and more than 8,000 injured since the conflict started, according to the Gazan health ministry. The UN children’s agency Unicef said that at least 296 Palestinian children had been killed, 30% of the civilian casualties. On the Israeli side, 63 soldiers and three civilians have been killed. Unicef said: “The number of child casualties during the last 48 hours may rise as a number of incidents are pending verification.”
US President Barack Obama said Hamas should be held responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire and demanded that it immediately release Goldin. He insisted the US was doing everything possible to prevent the deaths of Palestinian civilians, which he called “heartbreaking.”
Obama strongly condemned the Palestinian side for failing to follow through on the truce. “If they are serious about trying to resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as soon as possible,” Obama told reporters at the White House.
Britain is providing a further £3m to support a rapid response by aid workers in Gaza to what the international development secretary, Justine Greening, described as “nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg made a plea in the Guardian for the Israeli government to halt its military operations in Gaza and talk to Hamas.