The hostilities come amid uncertainty over ceasefire negotiations in Gaza. (representative)
Cairo:
An Israeli airstrike hit a tent in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Saturday, killing at least 11 Palestinians as people in the area sought refuge from Israel’s devastating offensive, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Gaza’s health ministry said another 50 people were injured in an attack near a hospital in the Sudan area of Rafatar. One of the deceased was a doctor at the hospital. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The attack hit directly a tent where people were taking shelter, and shrapnel flew into the hospital where my friends and I were, and miraculously we survived,” an unnamed witness told Reuters by phone.
The Israeli military said its forces killed eight militants in Khan Younis, about 20 militants in the central Gaza Strip, and another three militants in Rimal, near Gaza City.
The hostilities come amid uncertainty over whether ceasefire talks in Gaza will resume on Sunday.
More than a million Palestinians have been seeking refuge in the Rafah area, fleeing an Israeli offensive that has left much of the Strip in ruins and killed more than 30,000 people, according to health authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Israel launched an offensive in response to the attack launched by Palestinian armed groups on October 7. According to Israeli statistics, the attack resulted in the death of 1,200 people in Israel and the kidnapping of 253 people.
US President Joe Biden has said he hopes to achieve a ceasefire before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins on March 10. “We’re not there yet,” he told reporters Friday.
International pressure for a ceasefire is growing, with the United Nations warning that a quarter of the 2.3 million people in the territory blockaded by Israel are just one step away from famine.
Three people were killed in an Israeli attack on Saturday as they foraged for food in farmland in the Beit Hanoun district of the northern Gaza Strip, residents and medical staff said. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Thirteen children have died from dehydration and malnutrition at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza over the past three days, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Doctors at the hospital said many more people were at risk of death. “When a child is supposed to have three meals a day and he only eats one, he is clearly suffering from malnutrition and all the diseases that come with it,” said Dr. Imad Dadona.
Biden on Friday announced plans for the first military airdrop of food and supplies to Gaza, a day after the deaths of Palestinians lining up for aid drew renewed attention to the humanitarian catastrophe.
Gaza health authorities said 115 people were killed in Thursday’s incident, blaming the deaths on Israeli fire and calling it a massacre.
Israel disputes the figures and says most victims were trampled or run over.
ceasefire negotiations
Israel and Hamas have been negotiating through mediators including Egypt and Qatar.
Two Egyptian security sources said delegations from Israel and Hamas were expected to arrive in Cairo on Sunday to resume indirect talks.
But an Israeli report cast doubt on this.
There was no immediate comment from Israel or Hamas.
Egyptian sources said the two sides had agreed on the duration of the Gaza truce and the release of hostages and prisoners, adding that completion of the deal still required agreement on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from northern Gaza and the return of residents. .
However, Israel’s Ynet news quoted an unnamed senior official as saying that Israel would not send a delegation to the Cairo talks until it received a complete list of the hostages still alive in Gaza.
The core issues currently being resolved are how many hostages will be released from Gaza and how many Palestinians will be released by Israel in exchange for each of them being safe, the report said.
“The delegation will not travel to Cairo until a clear answer is given,” Ynet quoted the official as saying.
A Palestinian official familiar with the mediation effort did not immediately confirm the Cairo talks. “The gap remains unbridgeable in terms of ending the war and withdrawing troops from Gaza,” the official said.
During the war, Israel also stepped up attacks in the occupied West Bank, where UN records show at least 358 people have been killed since October 7, a quarter of them children.
Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported on Saturday that Israeli troops shot a 16-year-old boy in the head near the central city of Ramallah, killing him.
The Israeli military said its troops were conducting “routine activities” in the town of Kafnema near Ramallah. Dozens of people began throwing stones and explosives at Israeli troops. The Israeli troops responded with live ammunition, hitting one person.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
