Trump’s Middle East envoy will meet Netanyahu on Saturday, an Israeli official told Reuters
(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, an Israeli official said, amid efforts to secure a hostage deal and Gaza ceasefire.
Another Israeli official said some progress had been made in indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to reach an agreement in Gaza.
Mediators are making renewed efforts to reach a deal to end fighting in the enclave and release the remaining Israeli hostages held there before Trump takes office on January 20.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said eight people were killed, including two women and two children, in an Israeli airstrike on a former school sheltering displaced families in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted Hamas militants operating in the school and that it had taken measures to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave devastated and engulfed in a humanitarian crisis and most of its population displaced.
