GAZA STRIP (AFP) – Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes overnight and early yesterday killed at least 28 Palestinians, including at one family’s home and at a school building the military said was used by Hamas.
More than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, there was no let-up in the violence in the Gaza Strip even as Palestinian groups involved in the fighting said a ceasefire deal was “closer than ever”.
On the ground in Gaza, civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.
Hours after the strike, an AFP photographer saw residents searching through the debris for survivors, while others looked for belongings they could salvage.
In a nearby compound, bodies covered in blankets were laid on the floor. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has confirmed a separate strike further north, on a school in Gaza City.
Bassal said that eight people including four children were killed in the attack on the school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a “precise strike” overnight targeting Hamas militants operating there.
A military statement said that a Hamas “command and control centre… was embedded inside” the school compound in the city’s east, adding that it was used “to plan and execute terrorist attacks” against Israeli forces.
AFP images showed the damaged school building where mangled concrete slabs and iron beams lay strewn amid patches of blood.
Bassal said in a statement that an overnight strike killed three people in Rafah, in the south.
And a drone strike early yesterday hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people, the spokesman added.
Hamas and two other Palestinian groups said on Saturday in a rare joint statement that an agreement to end the bloodshed was “closer than ever”.
The groups said that a truce in Gaza and hostage release deal may be within reach, provided Israel does not impose new conditions in negotiations.
Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since a one-week truce in November 2023, with the primary point of contention being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly stated they oppose a full military withdrawal from Gaza.
Another unresolved issue is the territory’s post-war governance.
On Wednesday, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “hopeful” for a deal, but avoided making any predictions as to when it would materialise.
