Dozens killed in Gaza as Israel’s war enters 10th month | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

Israel is carrying out more deadly air strikes over the Gaza Strip in renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire.

At least 27 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, another grim day as the war in the besieged territory enters its tenth month.

One of the attacks since dawn on Sunday targeted a school housing displaced people west of Gaza City, killing at least four Palestinians.

In central Gaza, the Israeli army attacked a residential building in the al-Zawayda neighborhood, killing six people. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, two children were among the dead.

The killings came a day after an attack on a United Nations-run school for displaced Palestinians that killed at least 16 people and injured dozens.

Medics said six more Palestinians were killed in an attack on another house in Gaza City. Israeli jets also attacked a group of civilians on Street 8 in the Sabra neighborhood, killing at least two people, the Wafa news agency reported.

The Israeli military said it attacked a building in the Khan Younis community in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, claiming it was being used by Hamas for “military activities.”

There were no immediate details about the victims of the attack on Khan Younis. Hamas denies allegations that its fighters are seeking shelter in civilian areas, including schools and hospitals.

Meanwhile, the total death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7 has risen to 38,153, the territory’s health ministry said on Sunday.

According to UN agencies, the war has displaced 90 percent of the Gaza Strip’s population, nearly 500,000 people are suffering from “catastrophic” hunger and most hospitals are closed.

The rising number of casualties is overwhelming Gaza’s largest remaining health facility, Al-Aqsa Hospital, which is already filled with wounded from the relentless Israeli attacks.

“The situation is very difficult,” said Dr. Muhammad Salha, deputy director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia.

New diplomatic efforts

The spate of deadly attacks came amid renewed diplomatic mediation efforts by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to end nine months of violence.

The Egyptian news agency Al Qahera News reported, citing an anonymous high-ranking official source, that Cairo was hosting “Israeli and American delegations to discuss the outstanding issues” related to a ceasefire and hostage release.

The mediators are in contact with Hamas as part of “intensive Egyptian meetings with all parties this week to advance efforts” toward a ceasefire, the news report said late Saturday, without giving further details.

Israel also announced that it would send a delegation to talks with Qatari mediators in the coming days, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman said on Friday that there were still “gaps” in the ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.

In May, US President Joe Biden announced a plan that included an initial six-week ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Talks subsequently stalled, but a US official said on Thursday that a new proposal from Hamas “moves the process forward and could form the basis for concluding the agreement”.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that the group’s new ideas were “passed on by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side,” adding that “the ball is now in Israel’s court.”

Since October last year, there have also been almost daily cross-border gunfire between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah group. In the last month, the attacks and rhetoric have escalated, fuelling fears of a full-scale war.

Early Sunday, air raid sirens sounded again throughout northern Israel and the army reported the launch of 20 rockets, some of which were intercepted by air defense systems.

Meanwhile, protesters across Israel again took to the streets on Sunday to put pressure on the Netanyahu government to reach an agreement on the release of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

Protesters blocked roads at major intersections across the country during rush hour, demonstrated in front of politicians’ homes and briefly set fire to tires on the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem before police cleared the way.