Deir al-Balah: More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the nearly two-year war in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said Thursday, as Hamas and Israel reiterated their incompatible demands for ending the fighting sparked by the militant group’s 2023 attack.
Local hospitals said that Israeli strikes killed 28 people, mostly women and children, overnight and into Thursday, as Israel pressed ahead with the initial stages of its offensive in famine-stricken Gaza City. Hamas said that it was open to returning all 48 hostages it still holds — around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive — in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire.