Gaza Truce Efforts Intensify

Efforts to hammer out a temporary truce in Gaza intensified after months of war that have devastated the Palestinian territory and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine.

While a UN-backed assessment said 300,000 people in Gaza's north would face famine by May without a surge of aid, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said everyone in Gaza was now in need of humanitarian aid.

Israeli troops pressed an assault on Gaza's biggest hospital, which they allege is being used for military purposes.

The military said more than 50 fighters had been killed. Hamas said the assault on Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital was a war crime.

The new push for a truce follows a Hamas proposal for a six-week ceasefire, an increase in aid and the initial release of about 42 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

During the proposed truce, Israeli forces would withdraw from "all cities and populated areas" in Gaza, according to a Hamas official.

Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.

Israel has responded with a relentless offensive against Hamas that Gaza's health ministry says has killed at least 31,726 people, most of them women and children.

Israel had on March 11 said an airstrike on an underground compound in central Gaza targeted Issa, whom it called the deputy head of Hamas's armed wing. At the time it was unclear if he had been killed.

In January, Israel said it had "completed the dismantling" of Hamas's command structure in northern Gaza, but military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Palestinian militants and commanders have since returned to Al-Shifa "and turned it into a command center".

Witnesses reported air strikes and tanks near the hospital compound which is crowded with thousands of displaced civilians as well as the sick and wounded.