DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip killed 24 people, including women and children, overnight Tuesday, according to hospital data, in deadly violence that continues to rage as Israel and Hamas battle the latest ceasefire proposal.
The deaths in Nuseirat and Zawaida, including 10 women and four children, came days after Hamas said ceasefire talks were underway to end the nine-month war. would continue even after Israel attacked the militant group’s top military commander, Mohammed Deifwhose fate remained unclear. Israel says another senior Hamas militant was killed in that strike According to local officials, 90 Palestinians, including children, were killed.
International mediators are trying to persuade Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would end the devastating fighting and free some 120 hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.
The strikes took place late Monday night and early Tuesday morning at four homes, aid workers said. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of the dead, some wrapped in blue blankets and a floral blanket, as they were taken to Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Clouds of smoke from Israeli strikes could be seen over the city.
The army said it carried out “targeted strikes against terrorist targets” in central Gaza, without elaborating. It did not immediately provide more details about the targets.
Nine people were killed in two separate attacks in southern Gaza on Monday night, according to medical officials and Associated Press journalists.
An explosion in a house in eastern Khan Younis killed four people, while five others were killed in an attack on a street in the southern tip of Rafah, paramedics who took the bodies to Nasser Hospital said.
An AP journalist counted the bodies at the hospital before a funeral took place.
According to the military, air force planes struck about 40 targets in Gaza over the past day, including observation posts, Hamas military structures and buildings rigged with explosives.
The war in Gaza, sparked by a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian coastal region, displacing most of its 2.3 million residents and causing widespread hunger.
The surprise Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants took about 250 hostages. About 120 people remain captive, about a third of them dead, Israeli authorities said.
Violence has also increased in the West Bank during the war. On Tuesday, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli police officer, lightly wounding him. Another officer then opened fire, killing the attacker, who was identified as a 19-year-old from Gaza.
