Women and children among dozens killed as Israel targets homes in south Gaza

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Israeli forces targeted homes in southern Gaza's Khan Younis on Friday, killing 38 people, mostly women and children, and injuring many others, the ministry of health said.

In northern Gaza, where Israel is continuing to besiege and target the Jabalia refugee camp for the 21st day, “dozens” of people were killed and others were injured on Thursday evening, the official news agency Wafa said.

Local sources said more than 150 people, including women and children, were among the casualties when Israeli forces bombed at least 10 houses in Jabalia's Al Hawja area. Ambulances and rescue crews could not reach victims due to the continuing Israeli bombardment.

Israeli forces also stormed one of northern Gaza's last remaining hospitals on Friday. Witnesses said staff and patients, including children, at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia were told to leave.

The WHO said it had lost contact with medical staff at Kamal Adwan.

"Since this morning's reports of a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, we have lost touch with the personnel there," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

"This development is deeply disturbing, given the number of patients being served and people sheltering there."

Israel said its troops are operating "in the heart" of Jabalia refugee camp, south of Beit Lahia, near the hospital after receiving intelligence about "terrorists".

Later on Friday, Israel's army detained "hundreds" of staff, patients and displaced people sheltering inside the hospital, the ministry said.

"Food, medicines and medical supplies necessary to save the lives of the wounded and patients in the hospital have not been supplied or provided," at Kamal Adwan hospital, the ministry of health said in a statement. "The situation inside the hospital is catastrophic in every sense of the word."

The raid came a day after Israeli soldiers surrounded the hospital and opened fire, Wafa reported. At least 15 patients need surgery that cannot be performed because supplies have run out.

The director of Kamal Adwan hospital, Dr Hossam Abu Safiyeh, had previously warned that it would become a “mass grave” if help did not immediately arrive. He said 150 injured people were being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care and the neonatal department.

Tens of thousands of people in northern Gaza have been cut off from food and water. Only 16 out of the entire strip's 39 hospitals remain partially functioning, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

On Friday evening, a further 12 Palestinians were killed by Israeli drone strikes while waiting in line to receive aid in western Gaza City, Gaza's civil defence agency said.

The drones struck near the Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City, said agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

"Civil defence teams retrieved 12 martyrs and several injured individuals after Israeli drone strikes targeted a group of citizens and a vehicle waiting for aid," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said of the attack near the Shati refugee camp.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

A witness to the strike, Mustafa Abu Aita, said a crowd had been waiting for aid to arrive.

"They struck a small white bus with a missile, and another missile hit the people standing on the road, resulting in martyrs and injuries," Mr Aita told AFP.

"People fled the area, and ambulances came to transport the martyrs and the injured."

Ceasefire talks

An Israeli delegation is expected to travel to Doha on Sunday, headed by Mossad chief David Barnea who will meet CIA director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman, Reuters reported.

Sources told The National that a new proposal will be presented to Hamas that includes an extendable truce, the release of a small batch of the remaining 100 hostages being held by the group, and the resumption of aid to the enclave. Just over one day's worth of supplies has entered Gaza since the beginning of the month.

The negotiations are set to take place just over a week after Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in southern Gaza. Hamas insists on Israel's full withdrawal from the strip, a sticking point that Israel refuses to agree to.

Israel's Hostage and Missing Families Forum welcomed the talks but demanded that all the hostages are returned in a single phase.

“For over a year, 101 hostages have been held captive by Hamas in Gaza and are all currently under severe physical and mental risk,” the forum said in a statement on Thursday.

“As we approach nearly a year since the last hostage release deal, other than three rescue operations, we have only received hostages in body bags. A negotiated deal is the only way to bring all hostages home.”