2024-08-24 12:23:31
Cairo, Egypt. Multiple Israeli attacks in the southern Gaza Strip have killed at least three dozen Palestinians, authorities reported on Saturday, as preparations advance for high-level ceasefire talks in the Egyptian capital.
The dead included 11 members of the same family, including two minors, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike early Saturday at their home in the city of Khan Younis, according to Al-Nasser Hospital.
A total of 33 people were killed at the center in three separate attacks in and around Khan Younis. The city’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said it had received three more bodies after the attack earlier on Saturday.
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Another 17 people were killed, including passengers on tuk-tuks and bystanders, in an attack at a match south of Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital reported. Another attack hit a tuk-tuk east of Khan Younis, killing at least five people.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the reports but had no immediate comment.
Emergency crews found 10 bodies in a residential area west of Khan Younis. The hospital said the circumstances of their deaths were unclear but they were found in an area bombed by Israeli forces over the past week.
Associated Press reporters counted bodies at the hospital and documented the funeral in the center courtyard.
On October 7, the Gaza War broke out. Hamas-led rebels launched a raid on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 250 people hostage. More than a hundred of them were released during a temporary truce last year, but Israeli authorities estimate Hamas is believed to still have around 110 prisoners, a third of whom are dead.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, whose statistics do not distinguish between civilian victims and combatants. It also caused widespread destruction, forcing most of the Las Vegas Strip’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes.
Experts met on Saturday to iron out technical issues and pave the way for high-level talks on Sunday on a possible ceasefire brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday to meet with Egyptian and Qatari officials, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Merdawy told The Associated Press. Merdawi stressed that Hamas would not directly participate in Sunday’s talks but would be informed by Egypt and Qatar.
The Israeli delegation that arrived in the Egyptian capital on Thursday included David Barnea, the head of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service. Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano, head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service and the country’s top general.
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Rising reports from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Wafaa Shurfa in Khan Younis in Gaza contributed to this report.
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