it's 9 g.m. t, 12 noon in gaza, you are looking at pictures of the palestinian territory under heavy bombardment from israel. it's been the case for the last two hours there was intense shelling from gaza. it continues this morning. let's recap the main developments. israel stepped up the bombardment of parts of palestinian territory. according to the correspondents on the ground the attacks are getting nearer to gaza city. the number of casualties is rising rapidly. 40 people have been killed in

the neighbourhood east of gaza city. the total number of people killed in 12 days of attack by air, sea and ground troops stands at 397. u.n. says it needs basic supplies, thousands of wounded people have overwhelmed the main hospital. here is nicole johnson's report on the events of the last few hours. >> reporter: the eastern part of gaza was hit hard on saturday night. it was the heaviest tent shelling since israel started his ground operation. flares lit up the sky near the border. tent shells slammed into people's homs. >> wait, wait. we can hear shells and rockets falling on the streets and homes

in al-shaaf neighbourhood. they are falling everywhere. we have no electricity. >> for a few hours ambulance vehicles couldn't reach some of the neighbourhoods. >> the red cross can't reach the area, it's too dangerous. people are stuck at home. some magged to flee to schools in safer areas, we are stuck. the streets are empty. we are living in sheer. there's 18 of us in one room. it's my whole family, we are stuck, and the kids are crying. >> after a while some emergency crews reached the areas, so heavily shelled. two children among the dead, a woman and the son of a senior hamas leader.

>> translation: there's random shelling and no communication with israeli forces. palestinian personnel - we are waiting for them to evacuated the injured. >> it was a long and difficult night. the tent shelling is going on. people are hoping for a break. long enough to pull out those that are injured and killed. >> this morning, bodies have been littering the streets of gaza. lots of casualties, very graphic pictures as you can see. we were told that ambulances were not able to get into the shajaiya neighbourhood. it was too dangerous to go in. the death toll is likely to rise. 40 people died obvious night in the shelling. bringing the total number of

dead on the palestinian side to 397. people have been fleeing their homes, panicked. trying to find a safe place in gaza, it's not likely to happen. different areas are being bombarded and people have nowhere to run. huge plume of smoke over gaza right now. you can hear in the background the bombardment continuing. no quiet this morning, no calm this morning. people of gaza still suffering a great deal. meanwhile on the diplomatic front, there are intense efforts under way to try to net a ceasefire -- negotiate a ceasefire between hamas and israel. here in qatar u.s. general ban ki-moon it to mote with hamas --

meet with hamas leaders and the palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas, too try to find a ceasefire and negotiate a truce between gaza and israel. we don't know what is thought of the efforts. we'll ask nisreen el-shamayleh, who is in jerusalem for us. what does israel make of the intense diplomacy that is happening in qatar. has israel acknowledged the qatari proposal for a ceasefire? >> until now israel has not. what we have learnt is the qatari proposal is not on the table. israeli officials in the last 24, 48 hours have not commented on the efforts to try to revive the accuracy fire proposal. trying to reach a deal. we are hearing that the operation is continuing. i can tell you one thing. it does not mean that israel

will effect a deal. prime minister binyamin netanyahu said that the challenge for the army on the ground in gaza is difficult. this is a complicated operation, destroying the tunnels, and he said that he's not 100% sure that they'll destroy all of tunnels, maybe that means binyamin netanyahu will be looking for an exit plan. that could include the acceptance of israel to a ceasefire agreement, even one mediated by qatar. for four israelis don't talk about an accuracy fire proposal, and we -- about a ceasefire, and we learnt it's not on the table. >> they have laid out conditions for a ceasefire, saying they want the siege on gaza lifted. what are the conditions on israel's side? >> well, israel wants to agree

to a ceasefire, or wanted to last week when it accepted the proposal with no preconditions. it just wants an end to the fighting without offering anything in return. in is exactly what hamas has related. and what happened last week is it widened the rift between gaza and egypt. there are tensions. it is a tense and difficult relationship between gaza and the current government. it has become more tense with the egyptians yesterday saying that the proposal is not going to change, and hamas indicating that the conditions set for accepting the ceasefire are not going to change as well. this is why international and regional players are needed to try to bridge the gap between gaza and - between hamas and gaza and egypt. egypt is key and essential in

any caes fear agreement, because the palestinian jans and gaza expect it will be the shans who will open the crossing more often to people can breathe, go out. students can go to ejipt to study and by things. that trust needs to be established between hamas and gaza, and as well in egypt. there has been a proposal by the palestinian president, mahmoud abbas, and this has been quoted by the united nations, u.n. officials saying that mahmoud abbas suggested deploying palestinian authority troops along the fila dellify corridor, the route between gaza and egypt. which is a key palestinian demand by hamas. we don't know if hamas would accept a proposal, if it would

accept having palestinian troops and forces along the border. >> okay. for the moment, thank you very much. live in jerusalem for us. if you are join us on al jazeera, we are continuing to monitor the situation if gaza with the live pictures. heavy plumes of smoke over the skies of gaza this sunday morning as israel's offensive on the palestinian territory intensifies. more than 40 people have been killed overnight, bringing the total death toll on the palestinian side to 398, i believe, assistance the conflict began, more than 12 days ago. earlier the we spoke to the director of operations for the u.n. relief agency. he described the situation for us.

[ inaudible ] >> apologies for the quality of the audio, we'll try to fix that. let's speak to stefanie dekker, joining us on the phone now. a few minutes ago you were outside the shifa hospital and there was intense activity at the shops. bring us up to speed with what is happening there. >> that's right, there was speaking outside a hospital. it was not clear who was shooting at who. it was a tense situation, you have the hospital guards on high alert, people coming in. we saw a man carry a dead child. people are screaming, they are suspicious. it's a desperate theme.

people are desperately. they don't know what to do, where to go. they walked 5km at dawn. they couldn't get out. they were blockaded in there. suffering under intense shelling. now, it's slowly becoming apparent, we got pictures out of there. we are hearing stories, ambulance is able to get in about what the scene is, and it is horrific. dead bodies in the street. a local journalist confirmed dead. a cameraman trying to film. it is dangerous and difficult. one of the doctors at the hospital said to us come and see, and we have. there are desperate scenes of bad and wounded. he had dead paramedics. there is - it's ipp desgrim

nate. we had a statement for someone that deals with foreign journalists telling us it doesn't resume any responsibility for the death in this conflict, because they say that amas is using them as human shields and it was interpreted by journalists that there's no - it's ab solved the chance of responsibility if journalists are killed. we had the first incident and the majority of dead are civilians and children. because families have so many children sheer. eight, in my view, 10 children. that's a normal size. this is what we are sheing and people are being brought to shifa hospital. it is stretched beyond their capacity. >> we are joined on the phone by the executive director of one of

the hospitals. joining us from gaza city. wafa hospital was evacuated after being struck by israeli shells a few days ago. thank you. tell us about the situation at the clinic where you are. >> at the clinic we are in, a lot of people heard that wafa moved from the old place to the new place. we have many people coming seeking shelter. thinking that we are still having the same building that we used to have. we have rejected those people because we are guests on the clinic. but if i walk on the street, i walk outside the hospital here, which is the hospital. i find people walking, running in the street and this may be the image of 1948. they are running away from their

homes. they'll look for a safe shelter and safe place. gaza does not have any shelters to protect the people. israelis are shelling around. the building is shaking, the hospital is shaking, shooting at everything. an old van and an animal. they are acting in a way of an animal that has been wounded. hopefully this has to end, the walls have to here what is going on. it's a massacre in gaza, done by the israeli forces. >> they have been coming into the clinic. what sort of injuries have we seen after the intense shelling. who are the people coming in,

children, elderly people. tell us about the cases we have seen. what we are receiving are children, women, old men in a wheelchair , seeking shelter. we have nowhere to go. we have no shelters to hide, we have nowhere to go. israelis are shelling everywhere. the people coming here are children, woman, and older men in wheelchairs , and we cannot accept all of them. we have to take them as much as we can. the clinic said we don't have places for them. >> what are the dangers that you are facing as a medical practitioner in treating the patients, seeing the people? >> we are unable to get our medical supplies to treat the wounds. we are unable to move people to other hospitals for surgeries,

and difficulties with the innumber of of people, that there are huge. they have not handled the influx of injuries at the hospital. we are suffering and people are dying. >> okay, thank you doctor for taking the time to speak to us, i know you are busy at the sa hasha clinic as people flee the bombardment. thank you for your time. we go it majub in the studio. it's unbelievable the pictures out of gaza right now. dead bodies on the streets, people running away to god knows where because there's in respect to run to. what needs to happen to see it stop? >> the images i see now reminds me of what i saw in the 1980s. >> in beirut.

>> yes. it indicates how much of the operations are violent. what israeli said about what is happening now - so far in the last five or six hours, we have more than 30 people killed, more than 400 injured. this is something international community has to deal with, simply if there is - if there is, you know, enough respect to the human being in the world. there is some respect to the people's right to have a normal life. this should be stopped and each those who are doing this, all the actions would be punished because this is a crime. this is not a normal military operation. >> why do you think we are seeing this intensify when a few days ago last week israel was ready for a truce that had been supposedly brokered by egypt. israel said it was willing to stop fighting.

why are they going hard. >> israelis had a number of casualties in the last three days, basically at that stage the government cannot absorb it. they have to act. this is the first reason. the second is the political future which was mentioned. binyamin netanyahu will not be able to explain it to the israelis, they will not accept it. remember, they don't want their life under attack every minute. the third reason is israelis want to send a message to the disagrees all community say we have to top it or continue what we are doing. they want to say to the international community that the first stage of the operation, they object the egyptian initiatives, based on they will not pay anything back to the palestinians, they'll say stop

attacking israelis, as they say. now, with this kind of attack. they want to send a message because every civilian is targeted, and no one can have a shelter. and they explain why the operation is becoming more tougher in the last 10 hours. i think what is interesting about what happens in diplomacy, he is coming to doha as well, to join the efforts led by ban ki-moon. the efforts of ban ki-moon, the prime minister - the foreign ministry september his envoy two days ago to doha. he's coming to doha, meaning something serious is going on. >> and mahmoud abbas is meeting

as well. >> it is a visit of john kerry himself to the region. there is a move, but i am sure it will not bring life to those people killed already. at least they save more life in gaza, and the international community may clean the ugly face of keeping it from what is happening in the last 12 days. >> nisreen el-shamayleh is in jerusalem. we have been watching gruesome pictures out of gaza, bodies lottering the streets, women and -- littering the streets, women and children running for their safety. do people in israel see the imedges? >> -- images? >> i think few of them see the images. what they see here in the media is the announcements, and the kind of news reports that the army here wants the people to know about, which is that the army is leaving a successful operation in gaza, it struck

this many targets, it killed this many fighters, this is what the people here are hearing. i don't think they are getting the true picture in gaza, and even if israeli journalists wanted to go to gaza, they'll never see the real picture. we see some israeli reports quoting palestinian officials saying this is the death toll, this many people have been injured, but they are not seeing the painful pictures. they are not seeing the footage, we probably don't know. many people here support the ground operation. when binyamin netanyahu launched the operation he was under pressure to do something to change what was going on on the ground after nine days of air streaks, failing to stop the rocket fire from gaza, and failed to stop the attempt to infiltrate through underground

tunnels. he was pushed into a corner. he started it, and this is the result that we are seeing so far, and until now, i don't think the israeli public is that angry about the casualties among soldiers. the numbers are still limited. four soldiers killed in combat, and one in friendly fire. the number of these deaths among the soldiers, as they increase, there's a different reaction from the israeli public. overnight, in fact, israel had to deny reports from the brigade that 15 soldiers have been killed by groups in gaza, insisting that four had died. as you say, the death toll on the israeli sides, if it rises, we might see a change in strategy. >> probably. right now we are seeing that there's a lot of public support

for the ground operation. a lot of boasting by the government that this is exactly what israel needs to achieve the goals and stop the attacks by palestinian fighters. we know that binyamin netanyahu said in a statement that he doesn't know if they are going to be able to completely destroy all of these tunnels, leaving him with an option, with sometimes he would be - maybe he would be in a position to find the exit strategy. what we know is we learned that israel is not talking about the qatari propose am. it's not on the table. interesting, because a few days ago israel accepted the truth, bren by egypt. you wonder why you are seeing such an intense campaign when a few days ago they were prepared

for a truce. one of the ways in which the israeli government justified the grouped operation is by saying we are carrying out the operation after hamas rejected the ceasefire effort. and there was a humanitarian pause in hostilities on thursday. i think the israelis may have expected hamas to accept an egyptian offer of a ceasefire. there are no conditions that would be met through the ceasefire through hamas.

>> people need to leave egypt. >> i don't think the egyptians are offering that. i wonder how do the israelis view qatar and turkey's roll in these negotiations. i think they'd prefer the operation by ceasefire, a government that they trust in its place in egypt is similar to the one at the time of mubarak had close security coordination with the israelis. the government during the time of mohamed mursi, who was deposed had more friendly relations towards hamas. this is why the israelis prefer the agreement, where egypt is

involved. egypt - the israelis indicated that they want palestinian president mahmoud abbas to have an important role in a ceasefire agreement. i don't think they are comfortable deal with turkey or qatar, because of the ties that they may have with hamas. we know that qatar has played a role in trying to basically be a channel between hamas and the international community. because so many in the international community boycott hamas and relevant and refuse to deal with hamas. qatar played the role of trying to portray and sep sore the international community, the demands and request by hamas for a ceasefire. this is what is needed. there's too many subdivisions among the different players in the region. >> for the moment, thank you very much. >> nisreen el-shamayleh in jerusalem for us. well, the people of gaza were facing major shortages of life's essentials before the latest

assault by israel. now, according to the u.n.'s humanitarian agency 80% of the poop oulation -- population received electricity for four hours a day. 900,000 don't have adequate access to water and sap tigs. the u.n.'s relief work agency said 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, higher than at the peak. 2008-2009 conflict. the director of operations in gaza described the situation for us earlier. >> incursions into the boundary areas, a lot of damage as we understand. thousands of people on the move. we went - yesterday we had 30,000 additional people move into the schools, thousands overnight and more this morning. this morning we opened six schools that i know of already. there has been 60,000 last night. i wouldn't be surprised, 70,000,

80,000 seeking refuge. >> do you have the means to cope? are you overstretched. >> some of the areas are getting a run out of school buildings. a lot of our schools are in areas that we no longer consider secure. we are in negotiation with unicef and others to use government schools. we have run out of the mattresses, hi gene kits we are trying to bring stuff in. we are looking at borrowing from the unhcr. so we are getting there. today is going to be very difficult. tomorrow will be difficult. the food that we need to distribute is an area we can't access we are working with the israeli authorities to get access. it will be a long day. >> and your final answer on your assessment that the war is having on civilians.

>> it's primarily on the civilians. those that have been displaced, moving in fear. it will have a huge long-term psychological effect. if you are a 6-year-old child, this is your third war. we have to find a way to get past all of this. >> gaza understand heavy bombardment this sunday. more than 40 people were killed in overnight shelling and the death toll is continuing to rise. we'll have a short break and be back with the latest in a few minutes. stay with us on al jazeera.

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