People conduct rescue work after an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Dec 20, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

GAZA/JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON - The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks in Gaza since Oct 7 has reached 20,000 as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday that Israel "will fight until Hamas is eliminated", despite renewed efforts toward a new swap deal between the two conflicting parties.

At a White House briefing, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said "very serious" discussions are underway for a new humanitarian pause in Gaza

The victims included more than 8,000 children and 6,200 women, while more than 52,000 people were injured and 6,700 others were missing.

A total of 310 medical personnel, 35 civil defense personnel and 97 journalists were killed in the Israeli attacks, it added.

Meanwhile, two Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank cities of Hebron and Bethlehem, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

It raised the death toll of Palestinians from Israeli gunfire in the occupied territory to 303 since this new round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency.

Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive in Gaza to retaliate against a surprise Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct 7 when about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage, according to the Israeli tallies.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a press conference with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct 28, 2023. (PHOTO / POOL VIA AP)

Netanyahu says to fight 'until victory'

Meanwhile, Netanyahu vowed Wednesday that Israel "will fight until Hamas is eliminated", despite renewed efforts toward a new swap deal between the two conflicting parties.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Israeli official confirmed to Xinhua that talks brokered by Qatar in coordination with the United States have resumed. The official said that "no concrete proposal has been put on the table yet," emphasizing that Israel considers the release of all 128 hostages remaining in Gaza as "a top priority."

Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas's political bureau, traveled from Qatar's Doha to Egypt's Cairo for talks focusing on developments in the Gaza Strip and efforts to reach another truce in the enclave and a hostage swap.

Before his departure, Haniyeh held a meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, during which the Hamas leader voiced his movement's readiness for a lasting truce in Gaza, but made clear that Hamas would not negotiate while being attacked by Israel.

At a White House briefing, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said "very serious" discussions are underway for a new humanitarian pause in Gaza and the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. "We hope that they (the negotiations) lead somewhere," he added.

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Photo taken on Dec 20, 2023 shows the rubble after an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Despite recent developments, Netanyahu warned in a video statement that Hamas leaders and fighters "have only two possibilities -- to surrender or to die."

Amid the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been under Israeli strikes and siege for more than two months, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen stated that Israel wants to fast-track the delivery of humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza.

Cohen traveled to Cyprus for talks on the maritime corridor, his ministry said in a statement, adding that the goods to be shipped from Larnaca port to Gaza will undergo security checks in coordination with Israel. No specific date for the corridor's inauguration was provided.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that some 300 locations in Gaza were attacked over the past day.

Israeli troops have "secured control over the Hamas's 'Elite Quarter' in the center of Gaza City, including the area of the Palestine Square, from where its administrative and military leadership operated," IDF said in a statement. The complex includes a large network of tunnels that connects hideouts, bureaus, and residential apartments belonging to the group's senior leadership.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) speaks as he meets with US President Joe Biden (center) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv on Oct 18, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)

'Lower intensity phase'

Also on Wednesday, the United States expects to see the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas "move to a lower intensity phase," the country's top diplomat said Wednesday.

"It's clear that the conflict will move and needs to move to a lower intensity phase," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an end-of-year press conference at the State Department.

He said it is Washington's expectation and willingness that Israeli forces "shift to more targeted operations, with a smaller number of forces, that's really focused in on dealing with the leadership of Hamas, the tunnel network, and a few other critical things."

"It is vitally important how Israel conducts its operations," he added. "Again, focus on protecting civilians, minimizing harm to them, maximizing assistance getting to them."

Blinken's remarks came amid growing outrage around the world -- and to some extent within the United States -- over the soaring Palestinian civilian deaths.

At one point during the press conference, a reporter made a statement while asking a general question on US foreign policy over the past year, saying that the year 2023 is ending "with much of the world blaming the US and Israel, or seeing (the Israel-Hamas conflict) as America's war also. It's hurting America's image in the world."

Asked by that reporter whether the Joe Biden administration has any intent to rethink its diplomatic strategy in ways that will change the dynamics of a series of concurring conflicts still unfolding around the world, Blinken came to the administration's defense, taking the conflict in Gaza as an example and complaining about having heard "virtually no one saying, demanding of Hamas -- that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender."

Earlier in the day, Biden was asked by the press corps accompanying him on a trip in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to comment on a grim milestone of 20,000 Palestinian deaths in the conflict in Gaza that was expected to reach on Monday.

"It's tragic," the president said in a short answer, without elaborating.