DEIR EL-BALAHAs Israel sent a ceasefire negotiating team to Qatar ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House for talks toward a deal, medical officials in Gaza said that Israeli airstrikes killed at least 38 Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday.
In his proposal for a first 60-day truce, U.S. President Donald Trump, who will meet with Netanyahu on Monday, has proposed a partial release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for more humanitarian aid being permitted into Gaza. The planned truce asks for negotiations to end the 21-month conflict.
According to a separate Israeli official, the security cabinet authorized the transfer of aid into northern Gaza late Saturday, where there is a severe food scarcity that affects residents. Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak to the media about the decision, the official refused to provide further information.
Since Israel broke the most recent ceasefire in March, just a little amount of aid has entered northern Gaza. The closest aid distribution location for the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is located close to the Netzarim corridor, which divides the northern and southern parts of Gaza City.
In a prepared statement, a representative for the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said the organization had fired ballistic missiles overnight at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. The Israeli military claimed to have intercepted them.
Israel strikes 130 targets in Gaza.
20 Palestinians were killed and 25 injured when Israeli missiles struck two homes in Gaza City, according to Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of Shifa Hospital, which provides medical care for the region.
According to officials at Nasser Hospital in the adjacent city of Khan Younis, Israeli strikes in southern Gaza killed 18 Palestinians in Muwasi, an area on the Mediterranean coast where hundreds of displaced people live in tents, The Associated Press reported. Among the dead, it stated, were two families.
My cousin’s son and his daughter, my brother, his wife, and his four kids… As people gathered on the sand for prayers and funerals, Saqer Abu Al-Kheir declared, “Eight people are gone.”
The Israeli military said it had hit 130 targets in Gaza in the last 24 hours, although it did not immediately comment on the specific strikes. It said its strikes killed several militants in northern Gaza and targeted Hamas weapons, launchers, storage facilities, and command and control centers.
Disagreement about finishing the war
Netanyahu’s staff claimed that Hamas was requesting unacceptable amendments to the ceasefire agreement before to the indirect negotiations with the militant group in Qatar.
Hamas, which responded favorably to the most recent U.S. plan late Friday, has demanded assurances that the initial ceasefire will result in the complete cessation of hostilities and the evacuation of Israeli forces from Gaza. Netanyahu has maintained that Israel will resume fighting to ensure the group’s destruction, while Hamas has demanded guarantees that additional negotiations would result in the end of the war, which has caused previous conversations to stagnate.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing almost 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 more. This marked the start of the conflict. In response, Israel launched an attack that, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them were women and children.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run administration in Gaza, does not distinguish between militants and civilians. Its estimates are regarded as the most trustworthy war casualty statistics by the United Nations and other international organizations.
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From Beirut, Chehayeb provided a report. Tia Goldenberg, a journalist for the Associated Press, contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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Keep up with the war’s developments: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
