Israel Poised to Assault Last Gaza Town as Truce Talks Stall

The Ansar Mosque and an adjacent cemetery in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Photographer: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Israel warned it would move for the first time into a town in the heart of the Gaza Strip that it had earlier skirted for fear of harming hostages, as it accused Hamas of stalling at US-brokered ceasefire talks and the war’s toll on Palestinian civilians spiraled.

The Israeli Defense Forces on Sunday told Palestinians in parts of Deir al-Balah to immediately move southward to a tent city for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by 21 months of fighting.