Deadly violence persists in Gaza despite mediators' hopes for a truce

DIER AL-BALAH:  As mediators expressed optimism for an imminent cease-fire deal, violence raged on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, where an Israeli airstrike killed at least 18 people, all from the same family.

The attack came days after the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced the death toll surpassed 40,000 in the 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war, and just hours after officials from the United States, Egypt and Qatar wrapped up two days of cease-fire talks with a message of hope that a deal could be reached.

A joint statement from the three mediators said a proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas was presented and they expected to work out the details of how to implement the possible deal next week in Cairo.

The mediation efforts were aimed not just at securing the release of scores of Israeli hostages and stopping the fighting that has devastated Gaza, where aid and health workers fear a possible polio outbreak. It is also aimed at tamping down regional tensions that have threatened to explode into a broader war amid fears that Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of top militant leaders.

The airstrike in Gaza early Saturday morning hit a house and an adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance of the town of Zawaida, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital counted the fatalities as they were brought in.

Among those killed was a wholesaler identified as Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children ages 2 to 22, the children's grandmother, and three other relatives, according to a fatality list provided by the hospital.

“He was a peaceful man,” said Abu Ahmed, a neighbor who was slightly wounded in the attack.

More than 40 civilians were sheltering in the house and warehouse at the time of the strike, he said.

Associated Press footage showed bulldozers removing rubble from the heavily damaged warehouse, and trucks that Abu Ahmed said were used to bring meat and fish to Gaza from Israel.

The Israeli military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, said it was checking the report. It said Saturday that it was continuing attacks on militants in central Gaza, including one seen launching rockets at troops.

Meanwhile, another mass evacuation was ordered for areas in central Gaza. In a post on X, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Palestinians in areas in and around the urban Maghazi refugee camp should leave. He said Israeli forces will operate in these areas in response to Palestinian rocket fire.

The vast majority of Gaza's population has been displaced by the fighting, often multiple times, and around 84 per cent of Gaza's territory has been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the United Nations.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 250 to Gaza. More than 100 were released in a November cease-fire, and around 110 are believed to still be inside Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe around a third are dead.

Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 Hamas militants, without providing evidence.

Mediators have spent months trying to hammer out a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

But efforts took on new urgency in recent weeks as diplomats hoped a deal would persuade Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah to hold off on retaliating for the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut and of Hamas' top political leader in an explosion in Tehran that was widely blamed on Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since the war started, and an Israeli strike Saturday killed at least 10 Syrians there, including a woman and her two children, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot.

An American official said Friday that the cease-fire deal presented to the two sides bridges all the gaps between Israel and Hamas. In what appeared to be a sign of confidence, mediators were beginning preparations for implementing the proposal even before it was approved, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with rules set by the White House.

The official said an “implementation cell” was being established in Cairo to focus on logistics — including freeing hostages, providing humanitarian aid for Gaza and ensuring the terms of the pact are met.

But Hamas cast doubt on whether an agreement was near, saying the latest proposal diverged significantly from a previous iteration they had accepted in principle.

The Israeli prime minister's office issued a statement saying it “appreciates the efforts of the US and the mediators to dissuade Hamas from its refusal to a hostage release deal”.

Both sides agreed in principle to a plan announced on May 31 by US President Joe Biden. But Hamas has proposed amendments, and Israel has suggested clarifications, leading each side to accuse the other of trying to tank a deal.

The US official said the latest proposal is the same as Biden's, with some clarifications based on ongoing talks. The way it's structured poses no risk to Israel's security but enhances it, the official added.

Hamas has rejected Israel's demands, which include a lasting military presence along the border with Egypt and a line bisecting Gaza where it would search Palestinians returning to their homes to root out militants.

But Israel showed flexibility during the talks on retreating from the border corridor, and a meeting between Egyptian and Israeli military officials was scheduled for the following week to agree on a withdrawal mechanism, according to two Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private negotiations.

Israel insisted on keeping control of the road bisecting Gaza, but American mediators vowed to return to the talks next week with a compromise on that demand, the officials said.

As part of an increased wave of diplomacy aimed at securing the deal, French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Cairo on Saturday.

Séjourné and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy met with officials in Israel on Friday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken planned to travel to Israel over the weekend and was expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.