Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 29 people overnight on Saturday and into Sunday, including young quintuplets, local health officials said, as US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in the region to try to seal a ceasefire 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 called new demands by Israel.
The evolving proposal calls for a three-phase process in which Hamas would release all hostages abducted during its October 7th 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 latest Israeli bombardment included a strike on a home in Deir al-Balah that killed a woman and her six children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Mohammed Awad Khatab, the children’s grandfather, said his daughter was a teacher, and the youngest child was 18 months. The others were 10-year-old quintuplets, the hospital said.
Another strike east of Deir al-Balah killed at least four people, according to an AP journalist at the hospital. A strike in the northern town of Jabaliya hit two apartments, 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. A strike in Nuseirat killed one person, the hospital said.
Late on Saturday, a strike near the southern city of Khan Younis killed four people from the same family, including two women, according to Nasser Hospital.
An American official said on Friday that mediators were beginning preparations for implementing the latest ceasefire proposal, and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office expressed “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached.
An Israeli delegation was travelling to Cairo on Sunday for further talks, and Mr Blinken will meet Mr Netanyahu on Monday morning.
Mr Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting there were areas where Israel could be flexible and unspecified areas where it would not be. “We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” he said.
Hamas has cast doubt on whether an agreement is near, saying the latest proposal diverged significantly from a previous iteration it had accepted in principle.
Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands for a lasting military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border and a line bisecting Gaza where Israeli forces would search Palestinians returning to their homes.
Israel says both are needed to prevent militants from rearming and returning to the north. - AP