 "Nearly 70 killed in Gaza as Israeli strikes intensify amid ceasefire uncertainty")
Israeli strikes across Gaza have killed at least 69 Palestinians after the country’s military intensified attacks in the region, as Hamas considers a ceasefire agreement mediated by the US.
The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency has said that one Israeli strike hit a school-turned-shelter for displaced families in Gaza City, killing 15 people. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it targeted the shelter to destroy a “key” Hamas operative based there.
Another 38 Gazans were killed waiting in line to receive aid or on their way to pick it up, a claim that has been rejected by the Israeli military, which said that reports of such extensive casualties were “lies”.
The attacks come after US President Donald Trump declared that Israel has agreed to a ceasefire deal, urging Hamas to do the same. Meanwhile, the Palestinian terror group has said that it is considering a truce deal with Israel.
The IDF on Thursday said that its aircraft struck around 150 “terror targets” across Gaza in the past 24 hours, including fighters, tunnels and weapons.
At least 15 people, the majority of them women and children, were killed in a pre-dawn strike that hit a school sheltering displaced families in the al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to medics and the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.
Trump wants Gazans to be ‘safe’
Trump said Thursday he wanted “safety” for people in Gaza, as he prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week to push for a ceasefire.
“I want the people of Gaza to be safe more importantly,” Trump told reporters when asked if he still wanted the US to take over the Palestinian territory as he announced in February.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“I want to see safety for the people of Gaza. They’ve gone through hell.”
Netanyahu vows to bring hostages home
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring home all the hostages still held by Hamas in war-stricken Gaza.
“I feel a deep commitment, first and foremost, to ensure the return of all our abductees, all of them,” Netanyahu told inhabitants of the Nir Oz kibbutz, the community that saw the most hostages seized in the 2023 Hamas attacks that sparked the war.
“We will bring them all back,” he added, in filmed comments released by his office.
Netanyahu is due to meet Trump in Washington, DC next week, with the US president expected to push for a ceasefire.
With inputs from AFP
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