Gaza residents said the Israeli military launched one of the largest airstrikes on the territory in weeks on Tuesday, while health officials issued a new warning that the system is facing total collapse due to the Israeli blockade on all supplies.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced the suspension of the UN-supported polio vaccination campaign, putting the Strip at risk of a resurgence of the disease, which had been nearly eradicated. The campaign targeted more than 600,000 children, according to Reuters.

As part of diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, a Hamas delegation is scheduled to arrive in Cairo for talks.

Two sources said the delegation will discuss a new offer that includes a truce of between five and seven years after the release of all hostages and a cessation of fighting.

The two sources added that Israel, which recently rejected a Hamas offer to release all hostages in exchange for ending the war, has yet to respond to the long-term truce proposal. Israel is demanding that Hamas disarm, a demand the movement rejects.

Residents said Israeli forces bombed several areas across the Gaza Strip with tanks, aircraft, and naval vessels, adding that the attacks hit homes, camps, and roads.

Officials and residents said the airstrikes destroyed bulldozers and vehicles used to clear rubble and help recover bodies trapped under the debris.

Israel has been preventing any supplies from reaching Gaza since the beginning of March, and resumed military operations on the 18th of last month after the ceasefire collapsed.

Since then, Gaza health authorities say, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes as Israel controls what it calls a buffer zone in Gaza.

Nearly all buildings in Gaza have become uninhabitable following Israel's 18-month bombing campaign. Most of the Strip's 2.3 million residents now live in the open, sheltered in makeshift tents.

Since the comprehensive blockade was imposed last month, all 25 bakeries that operated with UN support have closed. Israel says that enough supplies to sustain Gaza's population for months have entered the territory during a six-week truce. Aid agencies fear that the population is on the brink of famine and that disease is spreading widely.

Khalil Al-Daqran, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that preventing the arrival of supplies puts the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients in Gaza Strip hospitals at risk.

He added, "If vaccinations are not available, we are facing a real catastrophe. Children and the sick must not be used as political blackmail pawns." He noted that 60,000 children are now showing signs of malnutrition.

Israel: "The blockade does not violate international law"

Israel says its blockade aims to pressure Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, to release the remaining 59 Israeli hostages, while Hamas has expressed its willingness to release them as part of a deal to end the war. The hostages were taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war in the Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on Twitter, "Israel is acting in full accordance with international law," in response to US Senator Bernie Sanders, who described Israel's comprehensive blockade of Gaza since March as a war crime.

Katz said, "The humanitarian situation in Gaza is under constant monitoring, and large quantities of aid have arrived. Whenever additional aid needs to be allowed in, it must be ensured that it does not pass through Hamas, which exploits humanitarian aid to maintain its control over the population and profit at their expense."

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, described the blockade as collective punishment of the people of Gaza.

"Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war. The blockade must be lifted, supplies must flow, hostages must be released, and the ceasefire must be resumed," Lazzarini said in a post on the X platform on Tuesday.

Israel confirms that it is still pursuing Hamas.

"We will pursue Hamas wherever it operates, whether in the north or south of the Gaza Strip or even outside it, anywhere," said Israeli army spokesman Avi Deveren.

The war broke out after a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which, according to Israeli statistics, resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people and the capture of 251 hostages in Gaza.

Gaza health authorities said that more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the Israeli offensive.