Israel ramped up its offensive in Gaza on Monday, with new displacement orders sending tens of thousands of people fleeing the north of the devastated territory and waves of airstrikes killing about 60 Palestinians, according to local officials and medical staff.

The violence in Gaza came as a senior adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, was due to arrive in Washington for talks on a new ceasefire, a day after Donald Trump called in a social media post for a deal to end the 20-month war and free 50 hostages held by Hamas.

Ron Dermer, the strategic affairs minister and a close confidant of Netanyahu, is expected to meet senior US officials to discuss ongoing indirect negotiations with Hamas, the aftermath of Israel’s war against Iran and the possibility of regional diplomatic deals.

An Israeli government spokesperson told reporters on Monday that Netanyahu was working to end the war in Gaza “as soon as possible” through the release of the hostages, of whom more than half are thought to be dead, and the defeat of Hamas. A US official said Netanyahu would travel to the US on 7 July to meet Donald Trump.

The new “evacuation orders” warned of impending assaults around densely populated Gaza City and told Palestinians to head south to overcrowded coastal zones, where there are few facilities and limited water. About 80% of Gaza is now covered by such orders or controlled by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The orders also said that the IDF planned to advance into the centre of Gaza City to fight Hamas militants based there.

On Monday, Israeli tanks and infantry pushed into the Zeitoun neighbourhood on the eastern edge of Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north, while aircraft bombed at least four schools after ordering hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said.

“Explosions never stopped; they bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes,” said Salah, 60, from Gaza City. “In the news we hear a ceasefire is near; on the ground we see death and we hear explosions.”

In the afternoon, an airstrike hit a crowded cafe on the shore in Gaza City, killing at least 22 people, including women, children and a local journalist.

The IDF said it struck militant targets in northern Gaza, including command and control centres, after taking steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.

Analysts have detected changes in the rhetoric of senior Israeli officials in recent days, which may suggest a new ceasefire is now being considered.

Throughout the conflict, Israeli attacks have intensified at significant moments in negotiations. Israeli officials have said one aim of Israel’s latest offensive, which was launched in May after the breakdown of a two-month ceasefire in March, was to seize territory that could later be given up during talks as a “bargaining chip”.

On Friday, Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, said the offensive was close to having achieved its goals. Netanyahu has also reinforced his political position within Israel and so is better placed to ignore threats by rightwing coalition allies to withdraw support in the event of a deal with Hamas.

A deal remains difficult though, officials close to the negotiations said, with both Israel and Hamas sticking to previous incompatible positions.

Hamas is demanding that Israel agrees to a definitive end to the war and is refusing to disarm. Israel refuses Hamas demands to withdraw entirely from Gaza and says it will end its campaign only when the militant organisation has given up its weapons and its leaders have agreed to leave the territory.

Yair Lapid, the Israeli opposition leader, on Monday added his voice to those in Israel calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

“There is no longer any benefit for the state of Israel from continuing the war in Gaza. Only damage on the security, political and economic level,” Lapid told a meeting of parliamentarians. “The army has no more objectives in Gaza.”

A public opinion poll published the day after Tuesday’s ceasefire with Iran by public broadcaster Kan showed that nearly two-thirds of respondents wanted the Gaza war to end. The result was in line with dozens of similar polls in recent months. Israel’s military has suffered significant casualties this month, which has added to the public pressure for a deal.

Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said on Monday it had received the bodies of 11 people who were shot while returning from an aid site associated with the Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund in southern Gaza, Ten others were killed at a United Nations aid warehouse in northern Gaza, according to the health ministry.

The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians had been harmed as they sought food from distribution centres in Gaza and other locations, saying that instructions had been issued to forces after “lessons learned”.

Food, fuel and other basics are scarce in Gaza, with distributions by the GHF coming nowhere close to meeting the needs of 2.3 million people.

Israel says Hamas steals aid to finance military and other operations. The group denies that accusation and aid agencies say their monitoring systems are robust.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.

Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed more than 56,500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population and reduced much of the territory to rubble.

AFP and Reuters contributed reporting

At least 62 people have been killed in Gaza by overnight Israeli strikes, according to health officials, as the humanitarian situation worsens in the besieged strip despite renewed hope for a ceasefire.

Airstrikes began overnight on Friday and continued into Saturday morning, killing a dozen people near a displacement shelter near Palestine Stadium in Gaza City. A strike at midday on Saturday killed at least 11 people.

A displaced family in a tent was killed in an Israeli strike in al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, while they were sleeping.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 56,000 people, half of whom are women and children, local health authorities say.

Famine-like conditions reign in Gaza after a two-and-a-half month blockade imposed by Israel on all food until late May, since when Israel has allowed only a dribble of humanitarian aid into the strip.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 people hostage.

The latest killings come as a ceasefire in Gaza seems within reach, with Donald Trump saying on Friday that an agreement could come within a week. “I think it’s close,” the US president said. “I just spoke to some of the people involved. We think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire.”

Reports say Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, will visit Washington next week to discuss the ceasefire, among other topics.

The recent ceasefire with Iran, which ended a 12-day conflict that Israel perceived to be a great success, might provide breathing room for long-stalled peace talks. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said on Thursday: “Along with releasing our hostages and defeating Hamas, there is an opportunity, a window of opportunity has opened and it can’t be missed. Not even a single day can be wasted.”

Fighting started anew in Gaza in March, when Israel restarted its war after refusing to move to a second phase of a January ceasefire that could have led to a more permanent truce. Negotiations since then have so far been fruitless, with Hamas insisting on a total end to the war in Gaza – a demand Israel has rejected.

Since the breakdown of the March ceasefire, more than 6,000 people have been killed in Gaza. Israel, for its part, says its aim for continuing the war is to return about 50 hostages who remain in Gaza, 30 of whom are presumed to be dead. Hamas has said it is willing to free all the hostages if there is a permanent truce, but Netanyahu wants the militant group to be completely dismantled in Gaza.

The most recent US proposal for a ceasefire involved a 60-day pause in fighting and renewed talks to achieve long-term peace, in addition to the release of half of all living hostages and half of the deceased. Hamas previously requested amendments to the proposal to release fewer hostages and for a permanent truce, which was rejected by the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, at the end of May.

As ceasefire talks have languished, humanitarian conditions in Gaza have sharply deteriorated. Unicef said last week that 60% of water production facilities in Gaza were out of order and that there was a 50% increase in acute child malnutrition from April to May.

Scenes of chaos unfold every day as crowds of hungry Palestinians have had to walk miles and contend with confusing sets of rules to access food, now distributed from set points run by the private American initiative the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

More than 500 people have been shot dead by Israeli forces as they have attempted to get aid from GHF distribution points, with witnesses accusing Israeli soldiers of shooting directly at crowds. The Israeli military said it was investigating such incidents.

Fifteen international human rights organisations have called on the GHF to halt its operations in Gaza, saying it risks being complicit in war crimes. The organisations also accused the GHF of violating the principles of neutrality and independence, cornerstones of humanitarian work.

The men from Fatah arrived on Thursday morning, hours after the attack on Kafr Malik, to put out more flags along the main streets, adding bright primary colours to a mournful scene, but they did nothing to relieve the all-encompassing sense of helplessness.

Three men from this central West Bank town, one a teenager, lay dead and several others were still in hospital after an attack by about 100 Israeli settlers on Wednesday evening. The men of Kafr Malik had run to its south-western edge to form a screen against the settlers and rescue women and children trapped in a house set alight by the masked attackers.

But as they threw stones at the settlers in an attempt to drive them back, the Israel army, who had taken up position behind the marauders, opened fire at the Palestinians.

“Their own kids are really valuable to them but other people’s kids are worthless,” said Mohammed Sabry, his eyes swollen from a night of weeping. His 18-year-old son, Lutfi, was one of the dead.

“There is no justification whatsoever to shed the blood of the Palestinian people like this,” Sabry said. “They attack us without provocation, and when the young people go to defend women and children, they are shot by the army. The bitter truth is that the world is watching the bloodshed of the Palestinian people without doing anything about it.”

Afi Hamayel has the misfortune to own a house on the south-east edge of town and it took the brunt of the settler attack. “They threw petrol bombs into my car and then through the window into the house,” Hayamel said as friends helped him remove charred personal effects from the house.

View image in fullscreen A burnt car after the attack by Israeli settlers in Kafr Malik. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

Hamayel’s extended family, including his own six children – 20 people altogether – had taken shelter in the house as the attack began. When it began to burn, a neighbour ran down the hillside to help them escape.

“He was helping me evacuate the children. He took them to his house and he was coming back when the army shot him in the head,” he said. The neighbour, 35, was listed as one of the three killed on Wednesday.

The settlers sprayed a black message on the wall around Afi Hamayel’s house, declaring the attack to be revenge for the killing two years ago of two settlers in Eli, a settlement about 9 miles (15km) to the north.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed they came under fire from the direction of Kafr Malik on Wednesday night. But that was adamantly denied by residents, the IDF produced no evidence, and there were no reports of any injuries among the settler assailants.

Five settlers who took part in the attack were detained. According to press reports and human rights activists, they were released without charge early on Thursday morning.

In Kafr Malik, a billowing brown and black tent was erected alongside the central mosque for the wake, with long lines of green plastic chairs lined up for the mourners, who arrived on foot from all corners of the town.

Palestinian flags hung along the surrounding streets alongside the yellow banner of Fatah, the main faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It was an exercise in branding, showing Kafr Malik’s continuing loyalty, despite the attacks, to the Palestinian Authority (PA), in which Fatah is the dominant force. It signalled that this town, at least, had not gone over to Hamas.

The Fatah banner is emblazoned with motifs of its past resistance, crossed assault rifles over a grenade, but the defiant symbolism was drained of meaning long ago.

Kafr Malik is about 8 miles north-east of Ramallah, the seat of the PA, but it lies in Area B, which means the PA is supposed to provide civil governance while the IDF is responsible for security. Palestinian police have no jurisdiction there. Even in Area A, where they are in charge, they do nothing to protect Palestinians from outside attack.

More and more over recent years, it has become open season on Palestinians in the West Bank, who have been killed with impunity. Through the Gaza war, the Lebanon war and now the Iran war, the death toll among Palestinians on the West Bank keeps grinding upwards, in a concerted campaign to drive them off their land. Since the start of the Gaza conflict, the UN says, 943 Palestinians have been killed by settlers or security forces, more than 140 of them this year.

View image in fullscreen Mourners during the funeral in Kafr Malik on Thursday. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

It was the second time the mourning tent had been put up in Kafr Malik this week. On Monday a 13-year-old boy, Ammar Hamayel, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while out with his brother in the olive groves on the south side of town. He was the 29th child shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

After the killing, the IDF put out a statement saying the boys had been throwing stones in the direction of a patrol, referring to them as “terrorists” and presenting it as a justification for shooting them dead using assault rifles.

Afi Hamayel is a relative of the dead boy, part of the same large clan. He said the brothers had been out trapping birds with nets set up between trees. Hamayel is a father of four girls and two boys, and these days he does not let them go beyond the garden fence.

The view from the family house looks over the Jordan valley to the distant high plateau of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the east bank. The rocky hillside below their home is covered with olive groves that Hayamel and other townspeople no longer dare to tend, for fear of being picked off by the settlers or an army sniper.

The tall antennas of an IDF base can be seen on the neighbouring hill overlooking the town, and a new settler outpost has sprung up alongside the base in the past two weeks, local residents said. An outpost is a settlement established without official authorisation, though under the current, settler-dominated Israeli coalition, outposts generally receive retrospective endorsement. The settlers receive army protection from the moment they arrive.

The world around Kafr Malik keeps shrinking. Last year, shepherds from the town were ambushed by settlers and their flocks were stolen. Now their olives are out of reach too. It is a commonplace tale across the West Bank.

“This is what ethnic cleansing looks like,” the human rights group Yesh Din said in a statement after Wednesday night’s attack. “Under the protection of government and military backing, settler violence in the West Bank continues and is becoming deadlier by the day.”

The Israeli military has launched an investigation into possible war crimes following growing evidence that troops have deliberately fired at Palestinian civilians gathering to receive aid in Gaza.

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks after being subjected to air attacks, shootings and bombardments by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while waiting for food to be distributed or while making their way to distribution sites.

On Friday the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers as saying they had been told to fire at crowds near food distribution sites to keep them away from Israeli military positions. The soldiers said they had concerns about using unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat.

Haaretz also quoted unnamed sources as saying that the army unit established to review incidents that may involve breaches of international law had been tasked with examining soldiers’ actions near distribution locations over the past month.

In a statement reported by Israeli media, the IDF rejected the accusations, saying that no forces had been ordered “to deliberately shoot at civilians, including those approaching the distribution centers”.

“To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,” the IDF said.

In a joint statement issued late on Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Israel Katz, the defence minister, accused Haaretz of “malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, the most moral military in the world”.

View image in fullscreen Palestinians carry humanitarian aid packages near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centre on Thursday. Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since a tight blockade on all supplies was imposed by Israel throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with famine.

Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy. Hundreds of trucks have been looted by armed gangs and by crowds of desperate Palestinians.

On Thursday, 18 people were killed in an Israeli strike targeting Palestinian police distributing flour in a market in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, medical officials said.

The strike appears to have targeted members of a security force set up by the Hamas-led interior ministry to target looters and merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices.

The unit, known as Sahm, or Arrow, confiscates stolen aid which it then distributes. Witnesses said many of the casualties were ordinary civilians who had gathered to receive sacks of flour from a warehouse near the Baraka crossroads in the northern part of Deir al-Balah.

The dead included a child and at least seven Sahm members, according to the nearby al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where casualties were taken. There was no immediate comment on the attack from the Israeli military.

Razeq Abu Mandil, a paramedic from the al-Maghazi refugee camp, said: “Among the injured were men, women, and children. In my ambulance, there was a woman and her daughter – both wounded.

“When we arrived, there were people torn to pieces – severely wounded and dead … We started transporting the injured and the dead to the hospital, then returned again to load the ambulances. I repeated this three or four times. The situation in the hospital was catastrophic.”

Ahmed Abu Zubeida, 36, from nearby al-Bureij, was among the wounded.

“I was far from the point of impact but some shrapnel injured my leg. I looked around and saw people lying on the ground – torn bodies, wounded individuals, blood and its smell filling the air, cries and screams,” he said.

The strike came shortly after Israel closed crossings into northern Gaza, cutting the most direct route for aid to the parts of the territory where the humanitarian crisis is most acute.

View image in fullscreen A mourner during the funeral of Palestinians who, according to the Gaza health ministry, were killed in the strike in Deir al-Balah on Thursday. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters

For most of the war, aid in Gaza was distributed mainly by the UN and other international humanitarian organisations, but Israel said Hamas diverted and sold supplies to finance its military and other operations.

The UN and other aid groups deny the charge and say their monitoring of their distribution networks is robust.

Israel has backed an American private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which started distributing food boxes in Gaza last month from four hubs.

To reach the GHF sites, which open intermittently and unpredictably and often at night, Palestinians must cross rubble-strewn roads and Israeli military zones where witnesses say troops often fire on them with mortars, tanks and machine guns.

A senior aid official in Gaza said many of the shootings occurred in darkness when civilians gathered near Israeli troops to wait for distribution sites to open or to receive aid looted from trucks.

“The soldiers fire to keep them away, or because they don’t know who is there, or because they don’t care, or all three,” the official said.

Medical records from independent NGOs working in Gaza, seen by the Guardian, confirm hundreds of lethal injuries from bullets and some from shelling.

The IDF insists its internal processes are robust but critics say few investigations are thoroughly pursued and only a tiny fraction result in any sanction.

Israel has continued to allow a smaller number of aid trucks into Gaza for distribution by the UN and other organisations, with about 70 entering the territory each day on Monday and Tuesday. On Thursday, Israel shut entry points used to access directly the north of the territory, where the need for aid is greatest.

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said on Friday that the US-backed aid operation in Gaza is “inherently unsafe”, giving a blunt assessment: “It is killing people.”

“People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,” Guterres told reporters.

The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage.

The overall death toll in Gaza in the 20-month conflict has reached 56,331 fatalities, mostly civilians, according to local health authorities.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

Early afternoon was a busy time in the al-Baqa cafe, on the waterfront in Gaza City. Under the wooden slatted roof, seated at plastic chairs and tables, were dozens of Palestinians seeking respite from the relentless 20-month war that has devastated much of the bustling, vibrant town.

On one side was the Mediterranean, blue and calm to the horizon. On the other, battered apartment blocks, wrecked hotels and the close-packed tents of displaced families.

Founded almost 40 years ago, the family-run al-Baqa was for many in Gaza City a reminder of better, more peaceful times. It had long been a place to escape the claustrophobic strictures of life in the crowded territory, to talk freely, laugh and dream.

Among those sipping coffee, tea and soft drinks in the cafe was a young artist – Amna al-Salmi – and her friend Ismail Abu Hatab, a 32-year-old photographer and film-maker. Others included another journalist and at least one family with young children, including a four-year-old child, and a mother and her two daughters.

Then, at about 3pm, the peaceful scene at the al-Baqa cafe was transformed. Witnesses described a huge roaring explosion, flames, a plume of ash-grey smoke rising fast into the air. No one needed to ask what had happened.

In recent days, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has escalated its offensive across all of Gaza but focused much of its firepower on the territory’s north, where Hamas remain relatively entrenched despite multiple military assaults.

Tanks have advanced into neighbourhoods to the east of Gaza City, so-called “evacuation orders” have forced thousands from makeshift shelters and airstrikes have killed dozens.

When the dust and smoke cleared at the al-Baqa cafe, scenes of carnage were revealed.

View image in fullscreen People and emergency services gathered at the scene at al-Baqa cafe. Photograph: Seham Tantesh/The Guardian

“I stepped outside briefly to get something to eat, and when I returned – just as I was close – a missile struck,” said Abu al-Nour, 60.

“Shrapnel flew everywhere, and the place filled with smoke and the smell of cordite. I couldn’t see anything. I ran toward the cafe and found it destroyed. I went inside and saw bodies lying on the ground. All the cafe workers were killed.”

Adam, 21, was working nearby, renting out chairs and tables on the small promenade.

“When I reached the site, the scenes were beyond anything imaginable. I knew all the workers at the place. It was full of customers of all ages,” he told the Guardian.

Other witnesses described seeing a dead child, an elderly man with both legs severed and many others with serious injuries.

All said they had been surprised by the extent of the damage, which wrecked the entire cafe, warping concrete columns and scattering debris. A deck of cards and a giant stuffed toy animal could be seen amid the wreckage.

Even hours later, the air “smelled of blood”, one witness said.

Many expressed surprise that the cafe could be targeted at all. A 55-year-old sports teacher who lives nearby described the cafe as the “nicest in Gaza” and a place that “should have been the safest of anywhere” in the Palestinian territory.

An IDF spokesperson said the attack was under review, adding that the Israeli military had “struck several Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip” and that “prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians using aerial surveillance”.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, the IDF said Israel’s air force had attacked more than 140 “terror targets” in Gaza over the previous day, including “terrorists, anti-tank missile launch posts, weapons storage facilities and other terrorist infrastructure”.

Medical and other officials said that between 24 and 36 Palestinians were killed in the attack on the cafe, with dozens more injured.

1:17 Israeli airstrike on popular Gaza beachside cafe leaves at least 30 dead – video report

Among the dead was 35-year-old Nour al-Huda al-Husari, who had gone with her two daughters “to get some fresh air and try to lift their spirits”.

“When I heard there had been a strike, I tried to call … I kept calling, but there was no answer,” said Mohammed al-Husari, her husband.

“Then about an hour and a half after the strike I heard she had been killed. My first thought was: what happened to my daughters? I felt like I was dreaming … I couldn’t believe it.”

The couple’s eight-year-old had been hurled many metres by the blast but was found standing stunned and alone, completely unharmed. But her older sister, aged 12, was badly hurt, suffering a skull fracture and internal bleeding, and could die.

“The hospital was completely full of the wounded and the dead – because the cafe was crowded with women, children and the young. It was not a suspicious or military place,” Husari said.

“If it had been, my wife would never have gone … she was always careful not to go anywhere risky or questionable, out of fear that something might happen nearby. The truth is there is no safe place in Gaza.”

Fatalities included Salmi, the artist, who was involved in initiatives to bring art by Palestinians in Gaza to a wider international audience and to support the most needy among the displaced in the territory.

View image in fullscreen A Palestinian man checks an area near the cafe that was damaged. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

Abu Hateb was also killed. The film-maker was badly injured early in the war and in an interview last year described how his work “haunted” him, bringing insomnia and depression.

“I have seen many martyrs, their meals still in front of them, unable to finish eating because they were killed. I think about that moment they must have felt just before death,” he said.

In addition to casualties from airstrikes, hundreds have died in recent weeks while seeking aid.

Those with savings or salaries can buy enough to survive on in local markets and even pay for drinks or a snack at venues where they can also use reliable wifi. The vast majority of the 2.3 million population suffer acutely, with growing malnutrition and a continuing threat of famine.

The war in Gaza was triggered by a surprise attack launched by Hamas militants into Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250, of whom 50 are still held by the militant Islamist organisation.

The ensuing Israeli offensive has so far killed 56,500, mostly civilians, and reduced much of the Palestinian territory to ruins.