Israeli strikes killed dozens of people across Gaza on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said, as talks to halt the fighting continued in Qatar and Israeli troops recovered the body of at least one hostage from a tunnel near the southern city of Rafah.
Palestinian medical workers said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a multi-storey house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, while another killed 10 in other parts of the city.
In Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, a total of seven people were killed, they said.
Israel’s military said it struck Hamas militants operating in a school building in Jabalia, and that it took steps to minimise risk to civilians.
Such mass casualties have become a daily occurrence in Gaza, where some 46,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel’s 15-month-long assault against Hamas, according to health officials in the enclave.
As Israel continued its bombardments, the United States, Qatar and Egypt were making intensive efforts to reach a ceasefire deal, with one source close to the talks saying this was the most serious attempt to reach a deal so far.
The outgoing U.S. administration has called for a final push for a deal before President Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region view President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 as an unofficial deadline.
“Things are better than ever before, but there is no deal yet,” the source told
Reporters.
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said overnight he hoped to have good things to report about Israeli hostages held by the time Trump is sworn in as president. A deal would also involve the release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
As the talks continued on Wednesday, the Israeli military said troops had recovered the body of Israeli Bedouin hostage Youssef Al-Ziyadna, along with evidence that was still being examined suggesting his son Hamza, taken on the same day, may also be dead.
“We will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
HOSPITALS UNDER THREAT
The Gaza Health Ministry said Nasser Hospital and the Gaza European Hospital might stop operations in a few hours unless the Israelis stopped restricting the flow of fuel to the facilities.
It later said it received a limited amount of fuel that would delay a complete halt of operations until Thursday unless more fuel arrives.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said those two hospitals and also Al Aqsa Hospital were at risk of collapse for want of fuel, threatening the lives of hundreds of patients including newborns.
Israel denies hindering humanitarian relief to Gaza and says it has facilitated the distribution of hundreds of truckloads of food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment to warehouses and shelters over the past week.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Its Gaza campaign has laid waste to much of the enclave. Most of the territory’s 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.
On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said heavy rains and flooding had left families living in damaged tents with up to 30 cm of water in them, “clinging on to survival without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets”.
Israel and Hamas accuse each other of blocking a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal by adhering to conditions that have torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.
On Tuesday, Hamas stood by its demand that it would only free its remaining hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi)
