At least 72 people were killed across Gaza by Israeli strikes, health staff say, as Palestinians face a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ceasefire prospects are claimed to be inching closer.
The strikes began late on Friday and continued into Saturday morning, among others killing 12 people near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, and eight more living in apartments, according to staff at Shifa hospital, to which the bodies were brought.
Three children and their parents were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent camp in Muwasi near the southern city of Khan Younis. They were struck while sleeping, relatives said.
A midday strike killed 11 people on a street in eastern Gaza City, and their bodies were taken to Al-Ahli Hospital. A strike on a gathering at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed two, according to Al-Awda hospital.
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The strikes come as US president Donald Trump said there could be a ceasefire agreement within the next week. Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, the president said: “We’re working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of.”
An official with knowledge of the situation said Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, will arrive in Washington next week for talks on Gaza’s ceasefire, Iran and other subjects. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of not being authorised to speak to the media.
Israel broke the latest ceasefire in March, continuing its military campaign in Gaza and furthering a dire humanitarian crisis.
Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, fewer than half of them believed to remain alive. They were among some 250 hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023, sparking the so far 21-month war.
The war has resulted in the deaths of more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. It says more than half of the dead were women and children.
It said the dead include 6,089 killed since the end of the latest ceasefire.
There is hope among families of hostages that Mr Trump’s involvement in securing the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is riding a wave of public support over the Iran war and its perceived achievements, and he could consider that he has more space to move towards ending the war in Gaza – a step which his far-right governing partners oppose.
Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war in Gaza. Mr Netanyahu says he will end the war only once Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.
Meanwhile, hungry Palestinians are enduring a catastrophic situation in Gaza. After blocking all food for more than two months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.
Efforts by the United Nations to distribute the food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people offloading supplies from convoys.
Palestinians have also been shot and wounded while on their way to get food at newly formed aid sites, run by the American and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Gaza’s health officials and witnesses.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire at crowds on the roads heading toward the sites. Israel’s military said it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been killed or harmed while approaching the sites. – AP
