Israel strikes Gaza Strip as Blinken heads to region for ceasefire deal
Deir Al-Balah: Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 24 people overnight and into Sunday, including a woman and her six children, local health officials said, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to the region to try to seal a cease-fire deal after months of negotiations.
The US and fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar said they were closing in on a deal after two days of talks in Doha, with American and Israeli officials expressing cautious optimism. But Hamas has signalled resistance to what it says are new demands by Israel, and the long-running talks have repeatedly stalled. The evolving proposal calls for a three-phase process in which Hamas would release all hostages abducted during its October 7 attack, which triggered the deadliest war fought between Israelis and Palestinians. In exchange, Israel would withdraw its forces from Gaza and release Palestinian prisoners.
The mediators hope to end a war that has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, displaced the vast majority of the territory’s 2.3 million residents and caused a humanitarian catastrophe. Experts have warned of famine and the outbreak of diseases like polio.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted around 250. Of those, some 110 are still believed to be inside Gaza, with Israeli authorities saying around a third are deceased. More than 100 hostages were released in November during a weeklong cease-fire.
Quadruplets among six children killed in Gaza.
The latest Israeli bombardment included a strike early Sunday on a home in the central town of Deir al-Balah that killed a woman and her six children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital counted the bodies.
Mohammed Awad Khatab, the children’s grandfather, said his daughter, a schoolteacher, was with her husband and their six children when their house was struck. He said the children ranged in age from 18 months to 15 years, and included quadruplets. He said the father was hospitalized after the strike.
“The six children have become body parts. They were placed in a single bag,” he told reporters outside the hospital. “What did they do? Did they kill any of the Jews? ... Will this provide security to Israel?”
A strike in the northern town of Jabaliya hit two apartments in a residential building, killing two men, a woman and her daughter, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Another two strikes in central Gaza killed nine people, according to Al-Awda Hospital. Late Saturday, a strike near the southern city of Khan Younis killed four people from the same family, including two women, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militant group conceals fighters, weapons, tunnels and rockets in residential areas. But the monthslong Israeli bombardment has wiped out entire extended families and orphaned thousands of children. Israel says ‘cautious optimism’ about ceasefire talks
The mediators have spent months trying to halt the fighting, efforts that gained new urgency after the targeted killing of two top militants last month, both attributed to Israel, brought vows of revenge from Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, raising fears of an all-out war across the Middle East. An American official said Friday that mediators were beginning preparations for implementing the latest ceasefire proposal, and Israeli PM’s office expressed “cautious optimism” a deal could
be reached.
