At least 14 Palestinians, including a family of five, were killed today in Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian doctors said.
An attack on the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City killed seven people, two of whom were children, and in the Jabaliya al-Balad area in northern Gaza, two were killed and five were wounded, the Hamas government's health ministry said.
In the western part of Gaza City, a school where displaced families took refuge was hit. Two parents and their three children died then, Al Ahli Hospital announced.
The Israeli army has not yet commented on the attacks. She blames the civilian casualties on Hamas extremists, who she claims operate in residential areas and other civilian locations.
The war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, 2023, after Palestinian extremists led by Hamas attacked southern Israel, where they killed around 1.200 and kidnapped more than 250 people.
In the ensuing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, more than 46.000 Palestinians died, according to the Hamas government's health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
(Beta)
In the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, at least 46.584 Palestinians were killed and 109.731 were wounded as of October 7, 2023, the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian enclave announced today, Reuters reports.
American and Arab mediators have made significant progress in brokering a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas and the release of dozens of hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip, but a final deal has yet to be reached, officials said today.
The three officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the coming days would be key to ending more than 15 months of fighting that has destabilized the entire Middle East.
One person familiar with the talks said that there was progress in the negotiations during the night and that a draft agreement had been drawn up. Israeli and Hamas negotiators will now bring it back to their leaders for final approval, the person said.
She said that mediators from Qatar exerted new pressure on Hamas to accept the agreement, while US President-elect Donald Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, exerted pressure on the Israelis.
Vitkof recently joined the negotiations and is staying in the region for several days.
The mediators in the negotiations handed over the draft agreement to each side, and it is also stated that the next 24 hours will be crucial.
A phased ceasefire is now being discussed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly signaled that he is committed only to the first phase, the partial release of the hostages in exchange for a weeks-long cessation of hostilities. The possibility of a permanent ceasefire and other issues would be negotiated after the start of the first phase. Hamas demanded a full withdrawal and a complete end to the war.
An Egyptian official said good progress had been made overnight, but that it would likely take several more days and that the parties wanted to reach a deal before Trump's inauguration on January 20. A third official said the talks had gone well but were not concluded. That official also said a deal was possible before the inauguration.
A Hamas official, however, said a number of contentious issues have yet to be resolved, including Israel's commitment to ending the war and details of Israeli troop withdrawals and hostage and prisoner exchanges.
The Biden administration, along with Egypt and Qatar, has spent more than a year trying to reach an agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian war and secure the release of dozens of hostages taken in the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
However, the sides are divided over the details of the hostage exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as well as the nature of the ceasefire itself. Hamas said it would not release the remaining prisoners without ending the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to continue the campaign until "total victory".
Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 46.000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the territory's Ministry of Health. Hamas-led militants killed around 1.200 people and kidnapped around 250 others in the attack that sparked the war.
The families of around 100 hostages still in Gaza are pressuring Netanyahu to reach an agreement to return the hostages home.
In Gaza, Palestinians have tempered their hopes of halting Israel's campaign, which has ravaged much of the territory and driven about 90 percent of its 2,3 million people from their homes.
(BETA)
The war in the Middle East continues. See what happened yesterday:
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