Prospects of a Gaza ceasefire appear to be inching closer, while Palestinians face a growing humanitarian crisis and health staff say at least 34 have died in latest Israeli strikes.
The strikes began late on Friday and continued into Saturday morning, among others killing 12 people at the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, and eight more living in apartments, according to staff at Shifa hospital where the bodies were brought.
Six others were killed in southern Gaza when a strike hit their tent in Muwasi, according to the hospital.
US President Donald Trump said there could be a ceasefire agreement within the next week.
Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office Friday (local time), the president said, “We’re working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of.”
An official with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, would arrive in Washington next week for talks on Gaza’s ceasefire, Iran and other subjects.
Talks have been on again, off again since Israel broke the latest ceasefire in March, continuing its military campaign in Gaza and furthering the Strip’s dire humanitarian crisis.
Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, fewer than half of them believed to still be alive.
They were part of some 250 hostages taken when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the 21-month-long war.
The war has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
It says more than half of the dead were women and children.
There is hope among hostage families that Trump’s involvement in securing the recent ceasefire between Israel and Iran might exert more pressure for a deal in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is riding a wave of public support for the Iran war and its achievements, and he could feel he has more space to move towards ending the war in Gaza, something his far-right governing partners oppose.
Hamas has repeatedly said it is prepared to free all hostages in exchange for an end to the war, while Netanyahu says he will end the war only when Hamas is disarmed and exiled, something the group has rejected.
Hungry Palestinians are enduring a catastrophic situation in Gaza.
After blocking all food for two-and-a-half months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.
Palestinians have been shot and wounded while on their way to get food at newly formed aid sites, run by the American and Israeli backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to Gaza’s health officials and witnesses.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire at crowds heading towards the sites.
Israel’s military said it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites.
Netanyahu slams aid shooting report
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz emphatically reject a report that claimed Israeli soldiers were ordered to shoot at Palestinians approaching aid sites inside Gaza.
They called the left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz’s findings “malicious falsehoods designed to defame” the military.
More than 500 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded while seeking food since the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing aid in the territory about a month ago, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire at crowds on the roads heading toward the sites.
Reacting to the Haaretz piece, Israel’s military confirmed it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites.
It rejected the article’s allegations “of deliberate fire toward civilians”.
The foundation, which is backed by an American private contractor, has been distributing food boxes at four locations, mainly in the far south of Gaza, for the past month.
“GHF is not aware of any of these incidents but these allegations are too grave to ignore and we therefore call on Israel to investigate them and transparently publish the results in a timely manner,” the group said in a social media post.
Palestinians trying to find food have frequently encountered chaos and violence on their way to and on arrival at the aid sites.
The bodies of eight people who died on Friday had come to Shifa Hospital from a GHF site in Netzarim, although it was not immediately clear how they died, Dr Mohamed Abu Selmyiha, the hospital’s director, told The Associated Press.
A GHF spokesperson challenged the report, saying they did not know of any incidents at or near their sites on Friday.
Twenty other bodies his hospital received on Friday came from air strikes across north Gaza, he said.
Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the hubs, moving through Israeli military zones where witnesses say Israeli troops regularly open fire with heavy barrages to control the crowds.
The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots.
The group Doctors Without Borders on Friday condemned the distribution system as “a slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid” and called for it to be immediately shut down.
—with AAP
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