Israel-Hamas war latest: Israeli strikes kill at least 17 in Gaza overnight, Palestinians say
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - A worker unzips a body bag to display a Palestinian family, consisting of five children aged 2 to 11 and their parents, in the morgue at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, after an Israeli strike hit their home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. Credit: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana
Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents.
The strikes came on the eve of new talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 10-month war. The United States, Qatar and Egypt are hoping to broker an agreement, but the sides remain far apart on several issues after months of indirect negotiations.
A top Hamas official has told The Associated Press the group is losing faith in the U.S. as a mediator in the Gaza cease-fire talks. It was not clear late Wednesday if Hamas would attend the talks beginning Thursday.
The overall Palestinian death toll in the war has almost reached 40,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
One strike hit a family home late Tuesday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It killed five children, ranging in age from 2 to 11, and their parents, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
An Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies said they had been dismembered by the blast and the 2-year-old had been decapitated.
In the nearby Maghazi refugee camp, a strike on a home early Wednesday killed four people, the hospital said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Health Ministry’s emergency service said first responders recovered the bodies of four men killed in a strike on a residential tower late Tuesday. Two more people were killed in a strike on a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, according to the emergency service.
Palestinians mourn their 4-day-old twin relatives, killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, as he holds their birth certificates, at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. Credit: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana
Health authorities in Gaza do not say whether those killed in Israeli strikes are militants or civilians. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in residential areas. The army rarely comments on individual strikes.
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