Dozens killed as Israel strikes north and central Gaza

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Dozens of people have been reported killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since Monday, including one on a home in the north, residents and civil defence members said.

At least 20 people were killed in air strikes on a house occupied by the Al Kahlout family in the northern area of Izbat Beit Hanoun on Monday evening, residents said. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported the death toll as more than 25, with dozens more injured, citing medical sources. The dead included women and children, it said.

Residents reported hearing loud explosions overnight in western Gaza as well as the extreme north where Israel's military has focused its military operations against Hamas militants since early October. The Gaza civil defence said another seven people were killed in air strikes on a home in central Gaza on Tuesday morning.

"Our teams in the central region recovered seven martyrs and several injured from a house belonging to the Khalifa family, targeted by Israeli warplanes early this morning in Camp 1 in Al Nuseirat," a civil defence statement said. Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir Al Balah received the bodies of four children, including two identified as nine-month-old Ghaith Yousef Nassar and his brother Ahmad, five, according to journalists at the scene.

Residents said the Israel military also opened fire north-west of Al Nuseirat Camp, while its artillery shelled the northern area of Al Bureij Camp, also in central Gaza. One person was killed when Israeli forces bombed a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood north of Gaza city.

The Palestinian death toll from Israel's devastating military offensive in Gaza, which began after Hamas killed nearly 1,200 people in raids on southern Israel on October 7 last year, has risen to 44,758, the local health ministry said on Tuesday. Another 106,134 people have been injured, and thousands of dead are believed to be buried under rubble.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out stopping the war in Gaza on Monday, despite signs that a new Egyptian truce proposal had been positively received by both sides. "If we end the war now, Hamas will return, recover, rebuild and attack us again – and that is what we do not want to go back to," Mr Netanyahu told a press conference in Jerusalem.

His remarks came a day after ceasefire negotiations resumed following a gap of three months. Sources familiar with the matter told The National that Hamas had agreed in principle to Egypt's proposal for a truce of up to 30 days and the release of some of the hostages seized from Israel during the raids last year. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday that Israel was now more optimistic about a possible Gaza hostage deal.

As well as the exchange of hostages for Palestinians held by Israel on security charges, the truce plan includes the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and Israel's gradual withdrawal from a strip of land along the enclave's border with Egypt. The strip includes the Rafah crossing, the only land exit from Gaza that is not controlled by Israel, which was the main point of entry for humanitarian aid before Israeli forces seized it in May.