At least 19 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed overnight in Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza, local health officials said.
A mother and her four children were reportedly killed when a tent camp for displaced people in al-Mawasi was hit, while another couple and their children were killed in the nearby town of Khan Younis.
Israel’s military said it carried out several strikes targeting Hamas fighters involved in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war.
Deadly strikes were also reported in central and northern Gaza, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying a total of 51 people had been killed across the territory in the past 24 hours.
In the north, the bodies of at least six people, including a baby, were pulled from two houses in Gaza City that were hit, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defense Agency.
Meanwhile, three people were killed in an attack in the central city of Deir al-Balah, while another child was killed in the nearby Bureij urban refugee camp, medics said.
The Israeli army did not comment on the strikes.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health also issued an urgent appeal for fuel to run generators for hospitals in the south. It was warned that the generators would stop working within hours, putting the lives of hundreds of patients at risk.
It came as indirect talks on a ceasefire and hostage-release deal continued in Qatar, where US President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy said “a lot of progress” had been made.
Stephen Witkoff said at a news conference in Florida on Tuesday that he would soon travel to Doha to join talks being mediated by Qatari, Egyptian and US officials.
“I really hope that by the time of the inauguration, we will have some good things to announce on behalf of the president,” he added.
Trump, meanwhile, repeated his threat that “all hell will break loose in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release the 100 hostages it is still holding before he takes office on January 20.
Hamas and Israel accuse each other of obstructing progress on the deal.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s attack on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
More than 45,930 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.
