Nine children among 20 reported dead after Israeli strike in eastern Gaza city
At least 20 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed and dozens more wounded when an Israeli air strike hit a group of people near a school in eastern Gaza city on Saturday night, Palestinian media reported.
The official Wafa news agency said civilians were struck close to Abdel Fattah Hammoud School in Al Tuffah neighbourhood of the city, citing its correspondent.
In a separate incident, two Palestinians were killed and others injured by Israeli shelling near the entrance to Al Bureij in central Gaza.
The latest violence comes as hopes run higher for a ceasefire after US President Donald Trump said an agreement could be reached within a week. Mediator Qatar has spoken of a window of opportunity.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to broker a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after a previous truce collapsed on March 18 when Israel resumed military operations.
'We think within the next week, we're going to get a ceasefire,' Mr Trump said on Friday, without elaborating.
In Doha, Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said negotiators are engaging with Israel and Hamas to build on momentum from the Israel-Iran ceasefire to work towards a Gaza truce.
Trump predicts ceasefire in Gaza 'within the next week'
Sources familiar with the peace talks, which are taking place in Cairo, have told The National that negotiations have gathered pace in recent days, with US envoy Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian-American, engaging in intense conversations with the Egyptian mediators and senior Hamas officials.
Mr Trump's Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in the region in the coming days, when he will visit Egypt, Israel and Qatar, according to the sources.
A midlevel Israeli official was in Cairo last week and senior negotiators from Israel's Mossad spy agency and military were expected soon, the sources said. There has been no confirmation of this from the Israeli government.
Efforts to bring an end to the war in Gaza have been stalled for months. More than 56,000 people have been killed in the enclave since the conflict began in October 2023 with the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israeli communities, in which about 1,200 people died.
Israel's military offensive has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and led to a humanitarian crisis in the territory, with dire shortages of basic essentials and the UN warning of famine.
The US and Israel last month launched a new aid system under the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private group, to address the humanitarian concerns. But the group has drawn intense criticism after scenes of chaos and bloodshed near its aid distribution sites.
Since late May, nearly 550 people have been killed near GHF aid centres while seeking food, according to local authorities.
The GHF has denied that deaths took place in the immediate vicinity of its aid points, but the UN and other aid organisations have refused to work with the group, calling its distribution system a 'death trap'.
Haaretz on Thursday published a report quoting unnamed soldiers saying they were ordered to deliberately fire live bullets at crowds near distribution centres to disperse them, even when they posed no threat.
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