Israeli soldiers move tanks on the stage near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on Sunday, May 18, 2025. Ariel Schalit/AP Closed subtitles
Tel Aviv, Israel - Israel's army said on Sunday it had launched a new offensive in Gaza as the two participated in the first round of serious ceasefire negotiations within months.
The ground operations came after a week of intensified Israeli air strikes - Gaza health officials said that in the past five days, the official killed about 500 Palestinians, including many women and children.
"They are gone." Rautha Naser, in the Gaza city morgue, mourned her sister and her sister's children, who were killed during an Israeli strike on Sunday morning. Gaza health officials said it killed twenty Palestinians, including five women and five children.
Israel said it targeted hundreds of Hamas ruins and killed dozens of militants and vowed to gradually expand its offensive to increase military pressure on Hamas.
Israel also plans to apply for food aid to Gaza, with a U.S.-backed program starting aid allocation on May 24, according to people familiar with the matter, and they posted anonymously before Israel's official announcement.
Israeli officials estimate that Palestinian civilians have seven to ten days left in Gaza and they have no right to speak publicly and share the assessment with the NPR under anonymity, according to a second person familiar with the matter.
Palestinians died in an Israeli Army airstrike at a funeral held in a funeral in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, May 18, 2025. Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Closed subtitles
Israel said the ceasefire negotiations with Hamas began in Qatar on Saturday and are continuing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Saturday that the United States is "actively participating in" the Ceasefire talks aimed at trying to free more Israeli hostages.
Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi announced that negotiations were underway without prerequisites. Israel's Prime Minister's Office said it is willing to negotiate a permanent ending of the war, not just a temporary ceasefire. Israel's refusal to promise to end the war is a major stumbling block to the ceasefire.
It is unclear whether the negotiations will lead to a breakthrough in the 19-month war in Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office said the end of the war will require "disarmament of Hamas militants and Gaza", which Hamas has so far refused.
According to a person briefing the matter, the two sides are negotiating a two-month ceasefire on the condition that about ten living hostages were released on the first day of the ceasefire.
Diplomacy is after a remarkable week in the region. Hamas freed the last living American citizen in Gaza hostages to be detained, saying it was President Trump's gesture of kindness to President Trump when he visited his Arab Gulf allies. Israel sent ceasefire negotiators to Qatar as it accumulated air strikes in Gaza.
A group of Palestinians sat near the body of Jabalia, Northern Gasha, Canada on Sunday, May 18, 2025. ANAS BABA/NPR Closed subtitles
Palestinians in Jabaliya, Gaza, said the Israeli bombing, coupled with military leaflets ordered them to flee, was the most intense strike since the war began, when Israel began retaliation against the October 2023 Hamas attack.
"This time is definitely different from the times before," said Kareem Joudeh, a resident of Jabalia. "The clear evacuation order shows the severity and intentions of Israel in this operation, and people are feeling the severity of the situation."
The family fled in donkey carts, cars and walking, holding mattresses and very little food left. Some fled the north also took the bodies of their loved ones killed in the recent strike, as a key Northern Canadian hospital, Indonesian hospital, unemployed in the Israeli bombing.
In the shadow of a partially damaged building, the seven-member family of Abu Nassar evacuated the south from their journey as air strikes echoed in the distance.
Majdi Abu Nassar said they fled after Israeli tanks rolled up near Jabbaria's home. He said he saw a fire at a nearby Indonesian hospital. He said he was carrying spoiled, invading flour, beans and lentils.
“We have no food,” Abu Nassar said.
A man is inside a devastating building in Jabalia, northern Gaza on Sunday, May 18, 2025. ANAS BABA/NPR Closed subtitles
Israel has locked down all food, medicine and supplies into Gaza for the 11 weeks, the longest lockdown it has ever imposed on Gaza. Israel said its aim was to put pressure on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire agreement that would be favorable to Israel.
However, Israel is under international pressure to allow food to enter the territory. UN-backed hunger experts say there is a risk of famine in Gaza. The U.S.-led initiative aims to distribute aid, a charity run by a U.S. military veteran called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The United Nations and its cooperative aid group have distributed aid in Gaza throughout the war, and they said they would refuse to participate in the new aid initiative, calling it a weapon for Israel's plans for military purposes. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it will operate according to humanitarian principles.
In order to obtain assistance under the proposed Israeli plan, Gaza's population will be forced to move southward in a new area blocked by Israeli troops. Israeli defense officials told reporters that this was to prevent Hamas members from getting aid and spoke on condition of anonymity to leak details.
NPR's Anas Baba reported on Gaza City, Abu Bakr Bashir reported from London.