Israeli air strikes on Gaza ‘kill at least 20 people’

One of the strikes hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone.

Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 20 people, Palestinian medics said.

One of the strikes hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight people, including two children, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, which received the bodies.

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

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday there is “some progress” in efforts to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, although he added he could not give a timeframe for a possible agreement.

Of the roughly 250 people who were taken hostage in the Hamas-led raid on Israel on October 7 2023 that sparked the war, around 100 are still inside the Gaza Strip, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Speaking in the Knesset, Mr Netanyahu said “we are taking significant actions through all channels to return our loved ones. I would like to tell you cautiously that there is some progress”.

Mr Netanyahu said he could not reveal details of what was being done to secure the return of hostages.

He said the main reasons for the progress were the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israel’s military actions against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who had been firing rockets into Israel from neighbouring Lebanon in support of Hamas.

“Hamas hoped that Iran and Hezbollah would come to its aid but they are busy licking the wounds from the blows we inflicted on them,” he said, adding that Israel was also putting “relentless military pressure” on Hamas in Gaza.

“There is progress. I don’t know how long it will take,” Mr Netanyahu said.

Elsewhere, Palestinians in the volatile northern West Bank town of Jenin are observing a general strike called by militant groups to protest against a rare crackdown by Palestinian security forces.

An Associated Press reporter in Jenin heard gunfire and explosions, apparently from clashes between militants and Palestinian security forces. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or injured. There was no sign of Israeli troops in the area.

Shops were closed in the city on Monday, the day after militants killed a member of the Palestinian security forces and wounded two others.

Militant groups called for a general strike across the territory, accusing the security forces of trying to disarm them in support of Israel’s half-century occupation of the territory.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority is internationally recognised but deeply unpopular among Palestinians, in part because it cooperates with Israel on security matters. Israel accuses the authority of incitement and of failing to act against armed groups.

The Palestinian Authority blamed Sunday’s attack on “outlaws”. It says it is committed to maintaining law and order but will not police the occupation.

The Palestinian Authority exercises limited authority in population centres in the West Bank. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East War, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.

Israel’s current government is opposed to Palestinian statehood and says it will maintain open-ended security control over the territory. Violence has soared in the West Bank following Hamas’ October 7 attack out of Gaza in 2023, which ignited the war there.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The ministry says women and children make up more than half the dead but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.

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

By Press Association