Multiple Israeli airstrikes killed at least three dozen Palestinians in southern Gaza, health workers said Saturday, as officials including a Hamas delegation gathered for ceasefire talks in Egypt.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
First responders also recovered 16 bodies from the Hamad City area of Khan Younis after a partial pullout of Israeli forces, 10 bodies from a residential block west of Khan Younis and two further south in Rafah.
The circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear, but the areas were repeatedly bombed by the Israeli military over the past week.
The officers, two major generals and a lieutenant colonel, were killed in central Gaza, the military said, without giving further details.
In recent weeks, Israeli forces have been engaged in fierce fighting with Palestinian militants in central Gaza, particularly in the Deir el-Balah area.
He stressed that Hamas will not take part directly in Sunday’s talks but will be briefed by Egypt and Qatar.
Merdawy said Hamas’s position had not changed from accepting an earlier draft that would include the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
At least three dozen Palestinians were killed by multiple Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza on Saturday, according to medical personnel, while officials, including a Hamas delegation, convened in Egypt for negotiations on a cease-fire.
An airstrike struck a family’s Khan Younis home, killing 11 members, including two children, according to Nasser Hospital.
33 bodies from three strikes in and around the city were brought to the hospital. Three bodies from a second strike were reported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Investigating the reports, the Israeli military declared.
Following the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, first responders also found 16 bodies in the Khan Younis neighborhood of Hamad City, 10 bodies in a residential block west of Khan Younis, and two more bodies in Rafah, further south. Although the exact cause of their deaths was not immediately known, the Israeli military had been bombing the areas for the previous week. A journalist for the Associated Press tallied the dead.
Back in Hamad City, a few inhabitants strolled amongst demolished residential buildings, their feet crunching underfoot. A multi-story building had all of its walls removed, leaving its rooms to frame residents rummaging through rubble.
Neveen Kheder, one of the women, said, “There is nothing, no apartment, no furniture, no homes, only destruction.”. “We are gradually passing away. Let’s face it, even a small amount of mercy would be preferable to what we are currently going through. “.
Three reserve officers who died the day before in fighting in the Gaza Strip were confirmed to have died, according to an Israeli military announcement on Saturday.
The military said that the officers—two major generals and a lieutenant colonel—were slain in central Gaza, but it did not provide any additional information.
Israeli forces and Palestinian militants have been fighting fiercely in central Gaza in recent weeks, especially in the Deir el-Balah area.
Although Hamas is thought to still be holding roughly 110 hostages, more than 100 of the hostages it took during its surprise attack on Israel on October 7th were freed during a ceasefire last year. According to Israeli officials, roughly one-third of them are deceased.
According to the Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its tally, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has claimed the lives of over 40,000 Palestinians. A total of 212 injured and 69 dead were transported to hospitals throughout the region in the last 24 hours, according to a ministry statement on Saturday.
Before high-level negotiations on a potential ceasefire mediated by the US, Egypt, and Qatar on Sunday in Cairo, experts were meeting on Saturday to discuss technical matters. The foreign minister of Qatar, Egypt’s spy chief, and CIA director William Burns met on Saturday night in Cairo, according to an Egyptian official with firsthand knowledge of the discussions.
According to senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawy, a delegation from Hamas arrived in Cairo on Saturday to meet with officials from Qatar and Egypt. He emphasized that while Egypt and Qatar will brief Hamas, the group will not be directly involved in Sunday’s negotiations.
Maj Gen Eliezer Toledano, the head of Shin Bet security, and the heads of Mossad, the foreign intelligence agency, were among the Israeli delegation members who arrived on Thursday.
In the midst of significant disagreements between Israel and Hamas over Israel’s insistence that it maintain forces in two vital Gazan corridors, the director of the CIA and Brett McGurk, a senior Middle East advisor to President Joe Biden, are leading the US side of the negotiations.
Fearing a wider regional war following the recent targeted killings of militant Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, both of whom were blamed on Israel, the US has been promoting a proposal to close the distance between Israel and Hamas.
In order to “stress the importance of deterring further escalation of hostilities,” a statement announced that General CQ Brown Jr., the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, would be traveling to Egypt, Jordan, and Israel in the coming days.
In order to emphasize the need for a deal, Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone on Wednesday. On Friday, he also spoke with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt about current events.
The east-west Netzarim corridor and the Philadelphi corridor, which run parallel to Gaza’s border with Egypt, have been a major source of impasse. To stop terrorists and stop smuggling, Netanyahu has insisted that Israel must continue to maintain control over the corridors.
Regarding the earlier draft that called for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, Merdawy stated that Hamas’s stance remained unchanged.
