The Israeli military said Sunday that it had begun "extensive ground operations" throughout northern and southern Gaza as part of a new campaign dubbed "Operation Gideon's Chariots."
In a statement, the military said it had killed dozens of Hamas fighters and struck more than 670 targets in preliminary strikes over the past week.
Health workers in Gaza have said hundreds of people, including many women and children, have been killed in the past week, with nearly a hundred bodies arriving at hospitals on Sunday.
The Israeli military said the campaign involved both active-duty soldiers and reservists.
"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will continue to operate against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip as required, in order to defend Israeli civilians," the statement read.
Israel says the new plan is meant to increase pressure on the militant Hamas group to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
Hamas has said it wants any new ceasefire deal to include provisions for Israeli forces to completely pull out of Gaza along with a road map to ending the fighting.
Israel says open to deal on ending war as Doha negotiations underway
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel was open to striking a deal with Hamas that included "ending the fighting" in Gaza as teams of negotiators met in the Qatari capital, Doha.
The office said: "Even at this very moment, the negotiation team in Doha is working to exhaust every possibility for a deal — whether according to the Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting," referring to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in previous discussions.
It said the latest talks included discussions on a truce and hostage deal, as well as an Israeli proposal to end the war in return for "the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip," according to the statement.
The latter terms are ones that Hamas has previously rejected.
A senior Israeli official said there had been no progress in the talks so far.
Hamas-run ministry says all hospitals in northern Gaza out of service
The ongoing intensified fighting in the northern Gaza Strip has forced the last functioning public hospital to close, the health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave said on Sunday.
Patients, medical staff and essential supplies were no longer able to get to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia amid the violence, the ministry said.
It said all public hospitals in northern Gaza were now no longer operational.
This comes as hospitals and medics in Gaza reported that Israeli airstrikes in a new offensive had killed at least 130 people, including children, overnight and into Sunday.
Those deaths come in addition to the 464 Palestinians reported by the Health Ministry to have been killed in Israeli military strikes on Gaza in the past week.
Israel launched the offensive on Saturday with the declared aims of achieving "operational control in the areas of Gaza."
The offensive is the largest since Israel broke a ceasefire with Hamas in March.
Israel to allow 'basic amount' of food aid into Gaza — Netanyahu
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Sunday night that Israel will allow some food aid to enter the besieged Gaza Strip.
The announcement comes hours after the Israeli military said it had launched a new ground operation in the Palestinian enclave.
"Israel will allow a basic amount of food for the population to ensure that a hunger crisis does not develop in the Gaza Strip," Netanyahu's office said.
International pressure has been mounting on Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, which Israel has totally blockaded since early March after a ceasefire collapsed.
Last week US President Donald Trump, who visited the Middle East but did not make a stop in Israel, had acknowledged that "a lot of people are starving" in Gaza as he pledged to "get that taken care of."
