Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli military strike killed 12 people in a Gaza City home early on Saturday, raising the death toll in attacks across Gaza to 62 over the past day, Palestinian medics said, as mediators mounted fresh pressure on ceasefire in Qatar.
Residents and doctors said at least 14 people were inside the Al-Ghoula family’s home when the strike struck in the early hours, destroying the building.
People searched the rubble for possible survivors trapped under the rubble, and doctors said several children were among the dead. A few hours after the attack, several flames and trails of smoke continued to rise from the burning furniture in the ruins.
“At around 2 a.m. (00:00 GMT) we were woken up by the sound of a large explosion,” said Ahmed Ayyan, a neighbor of the Al-Ghoula family, adding that 14 or 15 people were staying in the house.
“Most of them are women and children, they are all civilians, there is no one there who fired missiles or is from the resistance movement,” Ayyan told Reuters.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident.
The army said in a statement on Saturday that its forces this week resumed operations in the town of Beit Hanoun on the northern edge of the enclave, where the army has been operating for three months, and destroyed a military compound used by Hamas.
Later on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike killed three people in a car east of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, medics said. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in the attacks on Friday, bringing the death toll in the past 24 hours to 62, health officials said.
The surge in Israeli operations and the number of Palestinians killed in recent days comes amid renewed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the 15-month war and return Israeli hostages before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
Israeli mediators were sent to resume talks in Doha with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in place, and the administration of US President Joe Biden, which is helping broker the talks, urged Hamas on Friday to agree to the deal.
Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement, but it was unclear how close the two sides were.
Israel launched its attack on Gaza in response to a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in which militants stormed border communities from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
His military campaign, with the stated goal of rooting out Hamas, leveled parts of the enclave, driving most people from their homes and killing 45,717 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
