Israel has recalled its negotiation team that was in Doha for talks with Qatari mediators towards another pause in fighting in Gaza.

The Qatar-mediated talks focused on the potential release of new categories of Israeli hostages other than women and children and the parameters of a truce, which a source briefed on the talks said differed to the truce agreement that collapsed on Friday.

However, Israel accused Hamas of reneging on a deal to free all the women and children it was holding.

Israel and Hamas had been considering new terms for the release of hostages before the truce collapsed.

The truce, which began on November 24, resulted in Hamas releasing Israeli women and children taken hostage on October 7 in exchange for the Palestinians, including women, held in Israeli prisons.

Israel and Hamas have traded blame over the collapse of the truce, which lasted a week and was extended twice before mediators were unable to implement an agreement for a third extension.

Israel accused Hamas of refusing to release all the women it held.

A Palestinian official said the breakdown occurred over the release of female Israeli soldiers.

US laments ‘too many’ civilian casualties

US Vice-President Kamala Harris says too many innocent Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as Israeli war planes and artillery bombarded the enclave following the collapse of a truce with Hamas militants.

Residents feared the barrages presaged an Israeli ground operation in the south of the Palestinian territory that would pen them into a shrinking area and possibly push them across the body into Egypt.

The Gaza health ministry said at least 193 Palestinians had been killed and 650 wounded since the truce ended on Friday morning – adding to the more than 15,000 Palestinian dead since the start of the war.

Speaking in Dubai, Harris said Israel had a right to defend itself but international and humanitarian law must be respected and “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed”.

“Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering, and the images and videos coming from Gaza, are devastating,” Harris told reporters.

She also sketched out a US vision for post-conflict Gaza, saying the international community must support recovery and Palestinian security forces must be strengthened.

“We want to see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian voices and aspirations must be at the centre of this work,” she said, adding that Hamas must no longer run Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority governs parts of the occupied West Bank.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ mainstream Fatah party and has ruled the enclave ever since.

Post-war plans

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas once and for all, saying the Islamist group is bent on its destruction.

Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel did not want to see Gaza’s civilians caught in the crossfire.

“Israel is targeting Hamas, a brutal terrorist organisation that has committed the most horrific violence against innocent civilians. Israel is making a maximum effort to safeguard Gaza’s civilians,” Regev said.

He said that when the war was over, Israel would seek a “security envelope” with special zones and arrangements to prevent Hamas from being positioned on its border.

French President Francois Macron meanwhile said he was heading to Qatar to work on a new truce.

The deputy head of Hamas, however, said no prisoners would be exchanged with Israel unless there is a ceasefire and all Palestinian detainees in Israel are released.

Saleh Al-Arouri told al-Jazeera TV that Israeli hostages held by Hamas are soldiers and civilian men who previously served in the army.

‘New layer of destruction’

Throughout Saturday morning, a steady stream of wounded people were carried into the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, some receiving treatment on the floor.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said the renewed fighting was intense.

“It’s a new layer of destruction coming on top of massive, unparalleled destruction,” Robert Mardini told Reuters in Dubai.

With conditions inside Gaza reaching “breaking point,” in Mardini’s words, the first aid trucks since the end of the truce entered from Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Saturday, Egyptian security and Red Crescent sources said.

A senior official said Israel would facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s civilians.

The southern part of Gaza including Khan Younis and Rafah was being pounded on Saturday.

Residents said houses had been hit and three mosques destroyed in Khan Younis.

Displaced Gazans have been sheltering in Khan Younis and Rafah because of fighting in the north but residents said they feared Israeli troops were preparing to move south.

Diplomatic tensions

Belgium’s prime minister says he has spoken with Israel’s president following the resumption of fighting in Gaza and told him there could be no more killing of civilians.

“I’ve addressed my concerns about the fact that violence has started again and I’ve again repeated what I said at the Rafah gate: no more civilian killings,” Belgium’s Alexander De Croo told reporters at the COP28 United Nations climate summit in Dubai.

Israel’s foreign ministry summoned the Belgian and Spanish ambassadors over remarks made by their prime ministers last week at the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing into Gaza.

De Croo said at the time that Israel must respect international humanitarian law, that the destruction of Gaza was unacceptable and the killing of civilians had to stop.

An Israeli official said on Friday that the military abides by international law and that it sought to minimise the loss of civilian lives.

On Saturday, De Croo said Israel has “the right to eliminate the terrorist threat originating from Gaza” but that everything should be done to make sure that no more civilians were killed.

—AAP