An Israel airstrike in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 18 people from the same family, even as mediators expressed optimism for an imminent ceasefire agreement after 10 months of Israeli war.
The air raid on Saturday hit a house and adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance to the town of Zawaida, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, to where casualties were taken.
Among those killed was Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children aged two to 22, the children’s grandmother and three other relatives, according to a list provided by the hospital.
Omar al-Dreemli, a relative, stated: “We are in the morgue seeing indescribable scenes of limbs and severed heads and children who are dismembered.”
“He was a peaceful man,” said Abu Ahmed, a neighbour.
More than 40 civilians were sheltering in the house and warehouse at the time, he added.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters stormed across the border on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people, and abducting 250 to Gaza. More than 100 were released in a November ceasefire. About 110 are believed to be in Gaza, though Israeli authorities believe around a third are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry announced nearly 40,100 Palestinians had been killed in the war. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble and tens of thousands more have been injured.
The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, often multiple times, and about 84% of the territory has been put under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the UN.
Mediators have spent months pursuing a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the blockaded strip and the release of Palestinians prisoners from Israeli jails.
The US president, Joe Biden, stated on Friday that “we are closer than we have ever been” to a deal. But those comments were dismissed by a senior Hamas official on Saturday.
“To say that we are getting close to a deal is an illusion,” the Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP, adding, “We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats.”
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