JERUSALEM/GAZA - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed for an official visit to Washington on Sunday, calling the trip a "great opportunity" to expand the circle of peace in the Middle East.

Speaking before boarding his flight, Netanyahu said there were new prospects for Israel to reach normalization agreements with Arab countries "far beyond what we could previously imagine".

Netanyahu has made expanding normalization efforts a central goal of his foreign policy. Under the 2020 Abraham Accords, Israel signed normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. The country has peace agreements also with Egypt and Jordan.

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"We have already transformed the face of the Middle East beyond recognition," he said, referring to Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the cross-border fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as conflicts with Iran, Yemen and Syria.

Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli delegation was sent to Qatar to resume indirect negotiations with Hamas over a ceasefire-for-hostages deal, according to an Israeli official.

Netanyahu said the delegation had received "clear instructions" to work toward a ceasefire under terms already accepted by Israel. He added that his upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump "can certainly help promote the outcome we all hope for".

Netanyahu's visit to Washington, which begins Monday, is his third since Trump returned to office in January.

The trip comes amid growing public pressure in Israel for a long-term ceasefire that would end the war in Gaza and secure the return of around 50 hostages, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Meanwhile, Netanyahu's far-right coalition partners have pushed him to continue the military campaign and establish a permanent Israeli control over parts of the Palestinian enclave.

Hamas announced on Friday it had responded "in a positive spirit" to a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce. Trump said Israel had agreed "to the necessary conditions to finalize" the deal.

READ MORE: Israel to send delegation for indirect talks with Hamas on Sunday

Since Israel resumed its military campaign in Gaza on March 18, at least 6,860 Palestinians have been killed and 24,220 others wounded, according to figures released Sunday by Gaza health authorities. That brings the total death toll in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 to 57,418, with 136,261 injured.

Israel orders evacuation

Israel's military issued an evacuation warning to Palestinians in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, saying it was launching heavy bombardment in the area.

Israeli forces were "operating with extreme force in the area and will attack any area used for launching rockets toward the State of Israel," said military spokesperson Avichay Adraee on the social media platform X.

"For your safety, evacuate immediately westward and refrain from returning to the dangerous combat zones," he added.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli army said in a statement it had struck about 130 separate sites across the Gaza Strip.

Airstrike kills Hamas commander

Israel killed the head of Hamas' naval force in northern Gaza in an airstrike, the military and Shin Bet domestic security agency said on Sunday.

The strike, carried out by an Israeli fighter jet in Gaza City on June 30, killed Ramzi Ramadan Abd Ali Saleh, described by the Israeli authorities as the commander of Hamas' naval force in the northern Gaza Strip. Two other Hamas militants were also killed in the attack, including Hisham Ayman Atiya Mansour, deputy head of the movement's mortar array unit, and Nissim Muhammad Suleiman Abu Sabha, an operative in the same unit.

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Saleh was "a significant source of knowledge" for Hamas, the military and Shin Bet said, adding that he had recently been involved in planning maritime attacks against Israeli forces.

43 killed in Gaza attack

At least 43 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Civil Defense in Gaza said.

Israeli warplanes attacked two homes in the al-Nasr and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods in Gaza City, according to eyewitnesses.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense, told Xinhua that 25 people, including children and women, were killed, and several others were wounded in the two airstrikes.

Basal added that four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli shelling of a residential house in the al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, while three others were killed in an Israeli attack on a tent sheltering displaced persons in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.

Ten people were also killed in separate Israeli airstrikes on tents housing displaced Palestinians in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, according to Basal.

Meanwhile, Basal said that a Palestinian was killed and some others were wounded by Israeli army gunfire in the Al-Shakoush area, northwest of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

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In addition to the airstrikes and gunfire, Israeli artillery shelled the eastern and southern outskirts of Gaza City, Jabalia, and Khan Younis, amid clashes with armed Palestinian factions, according to local sources.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Sunday that IDF troops continued their operations both above and below ground against the "terrorist organizations" in the Gaza Strip.

According to the IDF, the attacks targeted command and control structures, storage facilities, tunnel shafts, weapons, launchers, and an unspecified number of militants in Khan Younis, Rafah, Gaza City and Jabalia.