Israeli strikes kill 43 more Gazans as truce talks deadlocked

Gulf Today

2 days ago

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.
Delegations from Israel and Hamas group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of devastating fighting in the Gaza Strip. But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in the Qatari capital, Doha.
On the ground, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 when a market in Gaza City was hit.
Elsewhere, eight children were among the 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, Bassal said.
Mourners recite a prayer over the body of Seraj Ebrahim, after he was killed in an Israeli strike that hit Nuseirat camp. AFP
Khaled Rayyan told AFP he was woken by the sound of two large explosions after a house was hit in Nuseirat.
"Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble," he said. Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure a deal. "What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity," he said. "Enough."
150 targets in 24 hours
The Israeli military, which has recently intensified operations across Gaza, said that in the past 24 hours the air force "struck more than 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip."
It released aerial footage of what it said were fighter jet strikes attacking Hamas targets around Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, showing explosions on the ground and thick smoke in the sky.
Relatives carry the body of 13-year-old Seraj Ebrahim, killed in an Israeli strike on a drinking water distribution point, for burial in Nuseirat. AP
Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry says that at least 58,026 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's retaliatory campaign. The UN considers those figures reliable.
UN agencies Saturday warned that fuel shortages had reached "critical levels," threatening to worsen conditions for Gaza's more than two million people.
A Palestinian woman bids farewell to her child Saraj Ebrahim. AFP
"Only 150,000 litres of fuel have been allowed in over the past few days — an amount that covers less than one day's needs," the head of the Palestinian NGOs Network in Gaza, Amjad Shawa, told AFP on Sunday. "We require 275,000 litres of fuel per day to meet basic needs."
The Handala — a former Norwegian trawler loaded with medical supplies, food and children's equipment — set sail from Italy, with the pro-Palestinian activists on board hoping to reach Gaza, despite Israel having recently detained and deported people aboard a previous vessel.
Agence France-Presse