Children among 58 killed in latest Israeli strikes on Gaza, say medics

Health authorities in Gaza said on Monday that 58 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory in the previous 24 hours, including a strike on a tent encampment in al-Mawasi, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, that left eight dead.

Two children were among the dead in the al-Mawasi strike, according to doctors at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, which received the bodies.

The hospital said it had recorded another six fatalities from a strike on individuals escorting an aid convoy, along with two additional deaths from an attack on a vehicle within al-Mawasi.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah said it had received three bodies after an airstrike on a school turned shelter in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp.

The Israeli military says it strikes only militants, accusing them of hiding among civilians. It said late on Sunday that it had targeted Hamas fighters in the humanitarian zone. Hamas denies it operates among civilians.

The head of the Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, told Reuters Israel had ordered the evacuation of the facility.

Hussam Abu Safiya said that obeying the order was “next to impossible” because there were not enough ambulances to get patients out. Kamal Adwan hospital has been under repeated attack since Israel sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and nearby Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya in October.

“We currently have nearly 400 civilians inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators,” Abu Safiya said. “We cannot evacuate these patients safely without assistance, equipment, and time. We are sending this message under heavy bombardment and direct targeting of the fuel tanks, which if hit will cause a large explosion and mass casualties of the civilians inside.’’

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told the Washington Post forces had not conveyed any evacuation warnings to the hospital this weekend.

Gaza’s health ministry has said the three main hospitals in northern Gaza – of which Kamal Adwan is one – are barely functioning.

Israels says the aim of the renewed assault on the north is to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping there.

Tens of thousands of people are sheltering on Gaza’s exposed Mediterranean coastline, where they are facing harsh winter conditions with inadequate shelter, food and fuel. Temperatures are falling and a series of storms have destroyed makeshift tents.

Oxfam said only 12 out of the 34 trucks of food and water allowed to enter north Gaza over the last 10 weeks had managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians because of “deliberate delays and systematic obstructions” by the Israeli military.

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy lead in the occupied Palestinian territory, told Al Jazeera: “After 14 months of relentless bombardment and starvation of the entire population, some people are acting out of desperation and there’s absolute chaos in Gaza right now.”

Khalidi added: “Some people are asking their kids not to play, because they will get dizzy since they’re not eating and drinking enough. Imagine asking your five-year-old not to play while already there’s all this death and destruction around.”

In the absence of electricity or gas, families residing in provisional camps across Gaza are enduring icy temperatures that could pose a grave risk to their lives.

Last month, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) said people in Gaza had been forced to burn plastic rubbish as a last resort to keep warm.

The recent developments came as Palestinian groups involved in the fighting said a ceasefire deal was “closer than ever”.

“The possibility of reaching an agreement is closer than ever, provided the enemy stops imposing new conditions,” Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a rare joint statement issued after talks in Cairo on Friday.

A Hamas leader told Agence France-Presse on Saturday that talks had made “significant and important progress” in recent days.

On Monday, in an interview with the Israeli radio station 103fm, the far-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the country needed a “big deal that does not include surrender to Hamas” in Gaza. “I believe that surrender deals that harm the great war achievements, harm us,” the leader of the ultranationalist Religious Zionist party said.

Even the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, suggested on Monday that a ceasefire deal, which would include the return of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, was on the horizon.

“Everything we are doing cannot be disclosed,” Netanyahu told lawmakers. “We are taking actions to bring them back. I wish to say cautiously that there has been some progress, and we will not stop acting until we bring them all home.”

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 people. About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least one-third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 45,200 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. Thousands more people are believed to be buried under the rubble and tens of thousands have been wounded.

The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report