Israeli forces bombed homes in nighttime raids in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people in one of the buildings in the town of Beit Lahiya, Palestinian doctors said on Monday.
Several people were injured and others were missing after a house providing homeless people was hit, and rescuers were unable to reach them immediately, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said.
The area’s three nearly non-functional hospitals were unable to cope with the number of injured, they added.
Several homes were bombed and some set on fire in Jabalia and in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, where the Israeli army has been operating for several weeks, residents said.
They said Israeli drones dropped bombs outside a school housing displaced families, suggesting the intention was to scare them into leaving.
Palestinians say Israel’s army is trying to drive people from the northern edge of Gaza with forced evacuations and shelling to create a buffer zone. The Israeli army denies this.
The Israeli army, which began its offensive against Hamas in Gaza following the militant group’s attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, said its latest operations in northern Gaza are aimed at preventing the militants from regrouping. and carry out attacks in these areas.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,400 people and displaced most of the population, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of the enclave lie in ruins.
About 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage in the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, according to Israeli counts.
New ceasefire talks
Israel agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week, but the conflict in Gaza continues.
Authorities in Cairo hosted talks between Hamas and rival group Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on the possible establishment of a committee to manage post-war Gaza.
Egypt has proposed that a committee made up of non-partisan technocratic figures, and overseen by Abbas’ authority, be ready to govern Gaza soon after the end of the war. Israel has said Hamas should have no role in governance.
An official close to the talks said progress had been made but no final agreement had been reached. Israel’s approval would be decisive in determining whether the committee could fulfill its role.
Egyptian security officials have also held talks with Hamas about ways to reach a ceasefire with Israel.
A Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters that Hamas maintained its condition that any agreement must end the war and involve the withdrawal of Israeli troops, but would show the flexibility needed to achieve that.
Israel has said the war will only end when Hamas no longer rules Gaza and no longer poses any threat to Israelis.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that there was some indication of progress toward a hostage deal, but that Israel’s conditions for ending the war had not changed.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said he believes the chances of a ceasefire and hostage agreement are now more likely.
This content was originally published in Israeli attacks leave at least 15 dead in northern Gaza on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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