At least 19 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed in Israeli air strikes on the southern Gaza Strip overnight, local health officials said.
A mother and her four children were reportedly killed when a displacement camp in Al-Mawasi was bombed, while another couple and their children died in the nearby city of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli army said it carried out several strikes targeting Hamas fighters who participated in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which led to the outbreak of war in Gaza.
Deadly raids were also reported in central and northern Gaza, with the Hamas-run Health Ministry saying 51 people were killed across the Strip in the past 24 hours.
In the north, the bodies of at least six people, including a child, were recovered from two bombed homes in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defense Agency.
On the other hand, medics said that three people were killed in an air strike on the town of Deir al-Balah in the center of the country, while another infant was killed in the nearby Bureij refugee camp.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on these strikes.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza also issued an urgent appeal to provide fuel to operate hospital generators in the south. It warned that the generators would stop working within hours, putting the lives of hundreds of patients at risk.
This came at a time when indirect talks continued regarding the ceasefire and the hostage release agreement in Qatar, with US President-elect Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East saying that “a lot of progress” had been made.
Stephen Witkoff said in a press conference in Florida on Tuesday that he would soon travel to Doha to join the negotiations mediated by Qatari, Egyptian and American officials.
“I really hope that by the inauguration, we will have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,” he added.
Meanwhile, Trump repeated his threat that “all hell will break loose in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the 100 hostages it still holds before he takes office on January 20.
Hamas and Israel exchanged accusations of obstructing progress towards reaching an agreement.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's attack on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 45,930 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Strip's Ministry of Health.
