13 Palestinians killed in central Gaza as ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas stall

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — Palestinian health officials said at least 13 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes on refugee camps in central Gaza overnight Saturday, while ceasefire talks in Cairo appeared to have made progress.

Among the dead in Nuseirat refugee camp and Bureij refugee camp were three children and a woman, according to Palestinian rescue teams who transported the bodies to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital. The 13 bodies were counted by AP journalists at the hospital.

Earlier, a team of doctors delivered the live baby of a Palestinian woman who was killed in an air strike on her home in Nuseirat late Thursday evening.

Ola al-Kurd, 25, was killed along with six others in the blast but was rushed by rescue workers to Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza in hopes of saving the unborn child. Hours later, doctors told The Associated Press that a baby boy had been born.

The condition of the still unnamed newborn is stable, but he is suffering from a lack of oxygen and has been placed in an incubator, Dr. Khalil Dajran said on Friday.

“Ola’s husband and a relative survived yesterday’s attack, while everyone else died,” Majid al-Kurd, the deceased woman’s cousin, told AP on Saturday.

“The baby is doing well according to the doctors,” he added.

The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian coastal territory, displacing most of its 2.3 million residents and causing widespread hunger.

The Hamas attack in October left 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, and about 250 were taken hostage by the terrorists. About 120 people are still in captivity, and about a third of them are said to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

The war between Israel and Hamas has claimed the lives of thousands of women and children in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials. In April, a premature Palestinian baby was rescued from the womb of its dead mother, but died days later.

In the occupied West Bank, a 20-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli forces late Friday night, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli army commented on the shooting, saying its forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians who were throwing stones at Israeli troops in the town of Beit Ummar.

Since the start of the Gaza war, violence in the area has increased. According to the Health Ministry in Ramallah, which records Palestinian deaths, at least 577 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since then.

In Cairo, international mediators, including the United States, continue to push for a phased agreement between Israel and Hamas that would end the fighting and release about 120 hostages in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, which would see the release of Israeli hostages held by the terrorist group in Gaza, was “within the 10-yard line.” However, he added: “We know that everything is most difficult in the last 10 yards.”

Since the week-long ceasefire in November, fruitless, halting negotiations have taken place between the warring sides, with Hamas and Israel repeatedly accusing each other of hindering efforts to reach an agreement.

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Jeffery reported from the West Bank city of Ramallah.

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