Children among 44 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

A Gaza family sat weeping over children killed by an Israeli airstrike as they were getting ready to play football, amid an intensified Israeli bombardment that Palestinian health authorities said has killed 44 people over the past 24 hours.

The strike was in Mawasi, a southern coastal area where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter after Israel's military told them to leave other areas it was bombing in its war against Hamas.

"The rocket struck them. There were no wanted or targeted people there and there was nobody else in the street. Just the children who were killed yesterday," said Mohammed Zanoun, a relative of the dead children.

Palestinian health authorities have reported that Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 43,500 people, with another 10,000 believed to be dead and uncounted under the rubble.

Israel launched its war in response to the attack on 7 October 2023, when Hamas militants stormed border defences killing 1,200 people and seizing around 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

On-off talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have made little progress and a Qatari official said Doha would pull out of negotiations unless the two sides committed more fully.

The official said Qatar would stop trying to mediate talks until Hamas and Israel "demonstrate a sincere willingness to return to the negotiating table".

That followed a US official claiming yesterday that the US had asked Qatar to close the Hamas office in Doha after the group rejected a ceasefire proposal.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed the report as "an American attempt to send a message of pressure to the movement through the media".

It was not clear how far the election of Donald Trump to another term as US president, or the coming departure of President Joe Biden's administration, would affect the war.

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Hamas officials have said Qatar has not asked them to leave.

"We have nothing to confirm or deny regarding what was published by an unidentified diplomatic source and we have not received any request to leave Qatar," a senior official said from Doha, after a diplomatic source told AFP that Qatar had withdrawn as a key mediator in negotiating a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal and had warned Hamas its Doha office was "no longer" serving its purpose.

Strikes

Strikes overnight and this morning also killed four Palestinians east of Gaza city including two journalists, four people in a house in Beit Lahiya, and two people in a tent at al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, medics said.

Israel's military did not respond to a request for comment.

It has previously claimed that Hamas fighters hide among the civilian population, and it hits them when it sees them. Hamas denies hiding among civilians.

For the past month, Israel's main military focus has been in northern Gaza, the first part of the tiny, crowded territory that its troops invaded early in the conflict last year.

The UN Human Rights Office said yesterday that nearly 70% of the fatalities it had verified in Gaza were women and children.

The conflict has expanded, with Israel also fighting the Hezbollah group in Lebanon.

An Israeli strike on Tyre in southern Lebanon killed at least seven people, Lebanese health authorities said.

A committee of global food security experts warned yesterday that there was a strong likelihood of imminent famine in northern Gaza amid the renewed fighting.

Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the office is based, said it categorically rejected the report, claiming it did not accurately reflect realities on the ground.

Israel's military claimed 11 trucks of food, water and medical supplies had been delivered into the north Gaza areas of Jabalia and Beit Hanoun and also claimed the famine assessment was based on "partial, biased data".

It said it was preparing to open the Kissufim crossing into Gaza to expand aid routes.