(Reuters) – US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, an Israeli official said, amid efforts to reach an agreement on hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.
A second Israeli official said that some progress had been made in indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to reach an agreement in Gaza.
The mediators are making new efforts to reach an agreement to stop the fighting in the Strip and release the remaining Israeli hostages held there before Trump takes office on January 20.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service announced on Saturday that eight people were killed, including two women and two children, in an Israeli air strike on a former school that was housing displaced families in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said that the raid targeted Hamas activists who were working in the school, and that it had taken measures to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.
Israel launched its attack on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed its border in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli statistics.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the Strip destroyed and in a humanitarian crisis, with most of its residents displaced.
