Anika Begay
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ramadan Abed
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli strikes killed at least 21 people in Gaza on Sunday, including six children, Palestinian health officials said, ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region to try to advance ceasefire talks.
The children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a home in the central town of Deir Al-Balah, health officials said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The Israeli military said it destroyed rocket launchers used to strike Israel from the southern city of Khan Younis, the scene of heavy fighting in recent weeks, and killed 20 Palestinian fighters.
Diplomatic efforts to halt the Israel-Hamas conflict and secure a deal to return hostages held in Gaza have intensified in recent days. Talks brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar are set to continue this week in Cairo, following a two-day meeting in Doha last week.
Blinken, on his tenth trip to the region since the war began, was due to arrive in Israel on Sunday, days after the United States advanced bridging proposals that mediating countries said would bridge gaps between the warring parties.
There has been growing urgency to reach a ceasefire agreement amid fears of regional escalation. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.
At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, relatives gathered around the bodies of the mother and her six children, wrapped in white shrouds with their names. The youngest was 18 months old, grandfather Mohammed Khattab told Reuters at the funeral.
“What was their crime? … Did they kill a Jew? Did they shoot Jews? Did they launch rockets at Jews? Did they destroy the state of Israel? What did they do? What did they do to deserve this?” Khattab said.
Israel has denied targeting civilians as it hunts Hamas militants, accusing the group of operating from civilian facilities, including schools and hospitals. Hamas denies it.
After 10 months of war, Palestinians in Gaza are living in utter desperation as they try to find safety.
“We are tired of being displaced. People are being pushed into cramped areas in Deir Al-Balah and Al-Mawasi, which have become pressure cookers,” Tamer Al-Burai, who lives in Deir Al-Balah with several relatives, told Reuters via a chat app. The tanks were just 1.5 km (0.9 miles) away, Burai added.
On Friday, the army ordered the evacuation of areas north of Khan Younis and east of Deir Al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting had taken refuge in dire conditions.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday’s orders, which included other enclaves outside the humanitarian zones, had reduced the size of the “humanitarian area” designated as safe by Israeli forces to about 11 percent of the total area of the Gaza Strip.
The Deir Al-Balah municipality, which estimates the city’s current population at 1 million, said evacuation orders had meant more people were crammed into a smaller space.
Additionally, a water shortage loomed as several wells and water tanks that once provided residents with 60 percent of their supplies were located in areas under evacuation orders, the city said in a statement released Sunday.
FLASHING TRIP
In Israel, Blinken is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials.
Netanyahu’s office said Saturday there was “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached, and U.S. officials were also positive, while cautioning that there was still much work to be done.
However, Hamas said the optimistic US comments were “misleading” and accused Netanyahu of setting new conditions in an attempt to “blow up” the negotiations.
Hamas wants a ceasefire agreement to end the war, while Israel wants a temporary pause.
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli counts.
Israel’s subsequent military campaign killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health officials, and reduced much of Gaza to rubble. Israel claims to have killed 17,000 Hamas fighters.
(Reporting and editing by Nidal al-MughrabiAdditional reporting by Ramadan Abed, Humeyra Pamuk and Jaida TahaReview by Frances Kerry)
