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STORY: Israeli forces have retreated from some Gaza City districts after a fierce, week-long offensive.

They left dozens of dead and wrecked homes and roads, residents and rescue services said on Friday (July 12).

Bodies wrapped in white shrouds and bearing the names of the dead women and men lay on the floor at Al-Ahli Hospital.

The Gaza Civil Emergency Service said teams had collected around 60 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces over the past week from the area of Tel Al-Hawa and the edges of the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City.

While tanks withdrew from some areas, Israeli snipers and tanks continued to control high ground at some locations, and warned residents from there against trying to return home.

Displaced Palestinian Musa al-Dahdouh:

"We were trapped inside the building and at 2 or 3 a.m. we saw people. We did not come out, we said 'we'll go out in the morning'. In the morning there were planes, they wouldn't stop, there were many - there were many. Planes, tanks, drones, all bombing us."

He said Israeli forces had detained and interrogated his two sons and their wives and children before allowing them to leave.

"My mother’s in a wheelchair as is my wife, she has metal implants in her arms and legs. My grandson’s legs are paralyzed - his father carried him on his back."

Home to more than a quarter of Gaza's residents before the war, Gaza City was largely razed to the ground in late 2023.

But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had returned to homes in the ruins before Israel once again ordered them out.

The Israeli military said on Thursday (July 11) that its forces were working to dismantle Hamas capabilities in Gaza City, and that it, quote, "follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they killed and wounded many Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire. There has been no Israeli army comment on those claims.

The Gaza City offensive took place as U.S.-backed mediators worked to finalize a peace deal that would free remaining hostages taken by Hamas in their cross-border attack on southern Israel on October 7.

On Friday, a senior Hamas official blamed Israel for a failure to build on momentum created when the Islamist faction dropped a key demand in the U.S.-drafted ceasefire offer a week ago to clear the way for a deal.

There was no immediate comment from Israel.