Among the dead were 11 members of a family, including two children, after an airstrike hit their home in Khan Younis. | File photo: Bloomberg
Multiple Israeli airstrikes have killed at least three dozen Palestinians in southern Gaza, health workers said Saturday, as officials including a Hamas delegation gathered for high-level ceasefire talks in neighboring Egypt.
According to Nasser Hospital, 11 members of a family, including two children, were among the dead after their home in Khan Younis was hit by an airstrike. A total of 33 bodies have been brought in from three airstrikes in and around the city, which also hit tuk-tuks and passers-by.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital reported that three bodies were found after another attack.
The Israeli military says it is investigating the reports.
First responders also recovered 16 bodies from the Hamad City area of ​​Khan Younis after a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, 10 bodies from a residential block west of Khan Younis and two further south in Rafah. The circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear, but the areas have been repeatedly bombarded by the Israeli military in the past week. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.
Some residents returned to Hamad City and walked among the destroyed apartment buildings.
There is nothing, no apartment, no furniture, no houses, only destruction, said a woman, Neveen Kheder. We are dying slowly. You know, if they would give a coup de grace, that would be better than what is happening to us.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas and other militants launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. More than 100 hostages were released during a ceasefire last year, but Hamas reportedly still holds about 110. Israeli authorities estimate that about a third of them are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its count. The ministry said Saturday that a total of 69 dead and 212 wounded had been taken to hospitals in the Strip in the past 24 hours.
The conflict has caused widespread destruction and displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, many of whom have fled to shrinking humanitarian zones.
Experts met Saturday to discuss technical issues ahead of high-level talks in Cairo on Sunday on a possible ceasefire brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar. CIA Director William Burns, Qatar’s foreign minister and Egypt’s spy chief met in Cairo on Saturday night, an Egyptian official with direct knowledge of the talks said.
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday to meet with Egyptian and Qatari officials, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawy told the AP. He stressed that Hamas will not participate directly in Sunday’s talks but will be briefed by Egypt and Qatar.
An Israeli delegation that arrived on Thursday included the heads of the Mossad foreign intelligence service and the Shin Bet security service, as well as Major General Eliezer Toledano.
The CIA director and Brett McGurk, a senior adviser to President Joe Biden on the Middle East, are leading the US side of the negotiations amid deep disagreements between Israel and Hamas over Israel’s demand that it maintain troops in two strategic corridors in Gaza.
The US has put forward a proposal to bridge the rift between Israel and Hamas, amid growing fears of a broader regional war following recent targeted killings of leaders of the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are attributed to Israel.
The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown Jr., would visit Egypt, Jordan and Israel in the coming days to stress the importance of preventing further escalation of hostilities, a statement said.
Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to stress the urgency of reaching a deal and discussed developments with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt on Friday.
A major impasse is the Philadelphia corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and the east-west Netzarim corridor through the area. Netanyahu has insisted that Israel retain control of the corridors to prevent smuggling and capture militants.
Merdawy said Hamas’s position had not changed since it accepted an earlier draft, which included the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: Aug 24, 2024 | 9:52 PM IST