(Dayr Al Balaḩ) At least 30 people, including children, were killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes overnight from Thursday to Friday, as warning sirens sounded across Israel and ceasefire talks -fire, already at a standstill, were to resume.
Posted at 7:02 a.m.
Wafaa Shurafa and Sam Mednick
Associated Press
According to staff at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, more than a dozen women and children were killed by the strikes which hit several locations in central Gaza, including Nuseirat, Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al Balah.
Dozens of people were also killed in the enclave on Thursday, bringing the total of those killed in the past 24 hours to 56.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the latest strikes, but it has long insisted that it only targets militants. She attributes responsibility for civilian deaths to Hamas.
PHOTO ABD ELHKEEM KHALED, REUTERS
Palestinian boys stand near the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in the Al Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Thursday’s strikes hit Hamas security officers and a humanitarian zone recognized by Israel. On Friday, Omar al-Derawi, an independent journalist, was killed. Associated Press journalists saw some of his friends and colleagues crying near his body at the hospital.
Israelis also woke up early Friday morning to attacks. Israel said missiles were fired into the country from Yemen, triggering air warning sirens in Jerusalem and central Israel, sending people fleeing to shelters.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, although a faint explosion, likely caused by a missile or the interceptors, could be heard in Jerusalem. The Israeli army claimed that a missile had been intercepted.
Furthermore, negotiating efforts for a ceasefire are expected to resume on Friday.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that he had authorized a delegation including members of Mossad, the intelligence agency, Shin Bet, the internal security agency, and the army to continue the negotiations in Qatar.
U.S.-led talks have repeatedly stalled during the 15-month war, sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants on Israel. The militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250 others. Around a hundred hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
The Israeli retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which says women and children account for more than half of the victims. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in residential areas. The army claims to have killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.
