Palestinian mortuary workers place a body inside a vehicle outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on June 26, 2025, after several people were killed during overnight Israeli strikes. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
CAIRO — Israeli gunfire and airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities told Al Jazeera, as mediators reached out to Israel and Hamas to seek a resumption of cease-fire talks to end the war.
Local health authorities said an Israeli airstrike killed at least nine people at a school housing displaced families in the Sheikh Radwan suburb in Gaza City, while another strike killed nine people near a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
Three other people were killed by Israeli gunfire and dozens were wounded as crowds awaited U.N. aid trucks along a main route in central Gaza, medics said, the latest in a series of multiple fatalities at aid distribution points.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on Thursday's incidents. Israel says it is seeking to eliminate militants from Hamas, which attacked southern Israel from Gaza in 2023, and free hostages still held by the group.
The new deaths come as Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, reached out to the warring parties in a bid to hold new ceasefire talks, but no exact time was set for a new round, according to Hamas sources.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a coalition with far-right parties, insists that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, release all hostages, relinquish any role and lay down its weapons to end to the war.
Hamas, in turn, has stated it would release the hostages if Israel agrees to a permanent cease-fire and withdraws from Gaza. While it has conceded it would no longer govern Gaza, Hamas has refused to discuss disarmament.
Hamas-led militants killed close to 1,200 people and took 251 hostages when they attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023, according to tallies from Israel, which launched a huge military campaign in response.
Israel's retaliatory war has so far killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, and destroyed much of the coastal strip. Most of the hostages released so far have been freed through indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi
airstrikes killed at least 35 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on
Thursday, local health authorities told Al Jazeera, as mediators reached
out to Israel and Hamas to seek a resumption of cease-fire talks
to end the war.
Local health authorities said an Israeli airstrike killed at
least nine people at a school housing displaced families in the
Sheikh Radwan suburb in Gaza City, while another strike killed
nine people near a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the south
of the enclave.
Three other people were killed by Israeli gunfire and dozens
were wounded as crowds awaited U.N. aid trucks along a main
route in central Gaza, medics said, the latest in a series of
multiple fatalities at aid distribution points.
There was no immediate comment...
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