Seven members of the same family were killed in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza on Sunday (18), medical officials said, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Israel to press for a ceasefire and hostage deal.
At least seven people were killed, six children and their mother, in an Israeli air strike on a house in Deir al-Balah on Sunday, Al-Aqsa hospital said. The children’s father was wounded, a hospital spokesman said.
Muhammad Awad Khattab, the children’s grandfather, told CNN: “They were surprised when a missile hit them and completely destroyed their apartment.”
“What did they do to deserve this?” Muhammad asked. “What resistance did they have?”
As the war rages on in Gaza, Blinken traveled to Israel to, in the words of a senior administration official, “continue to underscore the importance of achieving this [acordo]”.
The new attack in Gaza comes just a day after an Israeli strike killed at least 15 people, all from the same family, in the al-Zawayda area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Nine children were among the dead, according to the Gaza Civil Defense.
In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli military said its forces continued to operate in Khan Yunis and Dir al-Balah. It said the military had struck “targets in the area from which the launches were fired towards Nirim and destroyed loaded launchers in the Khan Yunis area.”
The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in northern Khan Younis and eastern Deir al-Balah on Friday, further reducing the boundaries of the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone.
Palestinians in Gaza have faced a series of evacuation orders. According to the UN, since October last year, more than 80 percent of the Gaza Strip has been subject to such orders, severely impacting the local population’s access to essential services and shelter.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza – launched after the October 7 Hamas attacks – has killed more than 40,000 people and reduced much of the territory to rubble. To make matters worse for Gazans, doctors this week detected the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years.
Peace efforts accelerate
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in Israel later Sunday amid urgent efforts to finalize an elusive Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.
A new ceasefire plan drawn up by the US, Qatar and Egypt was unveiled on Friday (16) after two days of high-stakes negotiations in Doha. Mediators have stepped up efforts amid fears of Iranian retaliation over the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran.
Blinken’s visit became an established pattern for the top U.S. diplomat to travel for in-person meetings to project high-level public pressure around the need for a deal. He will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior figures on Monday.
The senior administration official declined to say how the U.S. plans to pressure the Israeli government to accept the deal.
“I think it’s clear that a deal would not only be in the interest of the Israeli people, but it would also help alleviate some of the suffering in Gaza. “We will raise all of these issues directly,” the official traveling with Blinken told reporters.
US officials including President Joe Biden have expressed fresh optimism about finalising a ceasefire deal. However, Hamas has dismissed the progress, with a senior official from the militant group telling the BBC that mediators were “peddling wishful thinking”.
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli negotiating team is still cautiously optimistic about reaching a ceasefire deal with hostages. A statement released Saturday (17) said there was “hope that strong pressure” on Hamas from the United States and mediators “will allow a breakthrough in the negotiations.”
