JERUSALEM/GAZA/RAMALLAH - Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Israel is "working toward" a hostage deal and will not halt its offensive in Gaza in the meantime.

"There is a chance that this time we will truly be able to advance a hostage deal," Katz said during a tour in the Tel Nof Airbase in central Israel, without providing further details on the deal.

Israel will not halt its offensive in Gaza "until we bring back all the hostages and achieve our goals", he said, adding that "in the future, Hamas cannot rule Gaza. This is absolutely clear."

Official talks between Israel and Hamas are currently stalled, with Qatar, one of the main mediators, accusing both sides of lacking good faith.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

Gaza's health authorities reported on Wednesday that at least 44,532 people have been killed in over 13 months of Israeli attacks.

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Also on Wednesday, at least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike targeting a shelter for displaced people west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian sources.

Local sources and eyewitnesses reported that Israeli warplanes targeted the shelter, which houses displaced people in the Mawasi area, with at least one missile.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza issued a press statement saying its team is working to extinguish a fire that erupted in the tents following the Israeli strike.

Medics told Xinhua that rescue teams recovered the bodies of at least 20 victims, including five children, and transported dozens of the wounded to hospital.

The Israeli army has not yet commented on the strike.

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Meanwhile, an elderly Palestinian man died after being attacked by Israeli soldiers south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, said Palestinian sources.

"Asef Malik Diriya, 70, was found dead on his land after being severely beaten by the Israeli army," Mayor of Aqraba Salah Jaber told Xinhua.

The man was working on his land before being attacked, and his son found him dead before he was taken to hospital, where the medical team declared him dead, Jaber said.

The Israeli army has not commented on the incident.

Meanwhile, some Israeli armed settlers entered the towns of Hawara and Beit Furik in Nablus at dawn and started rioting, shouting and pouring flammable liquids on residents' homes and vehicles, eyewitnesses and local Palestinian sources told Xinhua.

Nablus Governor Ghassan Daghlas told Xinhua that the settlers attacked the Al-Dhobat neighborhood in Beit Furik, east of Nablus, noting that the fire destroyed a vehicle, a house, and a grocery store.

"Clashes broke out between residents and settlers during the confrontation of this attack," he said.

In the attack in Hawara, south of Nablus, the settlers burned at least five Palestinian vehicles and houses in front of the residents, he said, calling the attacks "an attempt to carry out murder and terrorism crimes against the Palestinian" that is supported by the Israeli army.

According to Israeli state-owned Kan TV news, the Israeli army has begun investigating Palestinian reports of the attacks around Nablus by Israeli settlers.

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On Wednesday, the town of Beit Furik saw clashes between Palestinian youths and the Israeli army in the Al-Dhobat neighborhood, with the former throwing stones and empty bottles and the latter responding by firing rubber bullets, according to eyewitnesses.