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At least 72 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, health workers have said.
The strikes began late on Friday and continued into Saturday, as 12 people were killed while sheltering in a stadium that was being used to house displaced individuals.
Eight others were killed in their apartments, according to staff at Al-Shifa hospital where the bodies were brought.
Hospital staff said that six others – including three children – were killed in southern Gaza when a strike hit their tent in Muwasi. They were struck while sleeping, relatives said.
The children’s grandmother Suad Abu Teima told the Associated Press: “What did these children do to them? What is their fault?”
More than 20 bodies were taken to Nasser hospital, according to health officials. A strike on a gathering at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza also killed two people, staff at Al-Awda hospital said.
A midday strike killed 11 people on a street in east Gaza City and their bodies were taken to Al-Ahli Hospital. The hospital said another strike on a gathering in the east killed eight, including five children.
The strikes come as US president Donald Trump said there could be a ceasefire agreement within the next week.
He said on Friday: “We’re working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of”.
Mr Trump added: “I think it’s close. I just spoke to some of the people involved. We think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire”.
Israel’s minister for strategic affairs Ron Dermer is expected to arrive in Washington next week for talks on Gaza, Iran and other subjects.
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson has said that mediators are engaging with Israel and Hamas to build momentum on the ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s spokesperson, said: “If we don’t utilise this window of opportunity and this momentum, it’s an opportunity lost amongst many in the near past. We don’t want to see that again”. He said they were working with the US “very closely to make sure that the right pressure is applied from the international community”.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also hinted at further peace negotiations in a video on Thursday in which he said that a new opportunity had opened up for a “dramatic expansion of peace agreements”.
He added: “There is a window of opportunity here that must not be wasted. We must not waste even a single day”.
Israeli forces claimed to have killed a senior Hamas commander, Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa, on Saturday.
Al-Issa was described as “a key source of knowledge and one of the last remaining senior Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip”, who they believed was a key organiser behind the attack on 7 October.
The bombardment of Gaza has claimed over 56,000 lives, according to local officials.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that they had “most likely successfully intercepted” a missile fired from Yemen, with the Houthis claiming responsibility for the launch.
An Israeli strike also killed one person in southern Lebanon on Saturday, according to the Lebanese health ministry, despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, hungry Palestinians are enduring a catastrophic situation in Gaza. After blocking all food for two and a half months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.
More than 500 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded while seeking food since the newly formed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing aid in the territory about a month ago, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Palestinian witnesses say Israeli troops have opened fire at crowds on roads heading toward the sites. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots and that it was investigating incidents in which civilians had been harmed while approaching the sites.
