Israeli attacks on Gaza kill over 30 people as both sides weigh latest ceasefire proposal

More than 30 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, while Israel and Hamas are still discussing the latest ceasefire proposal.

In the center of Gaza, 24 people were killed on the night of July 16. Among the fatalities in Nuseirat and Zawaida were ten women and four children.

Hamas has said ceasefire talks aimed at ending the nine-month war will continue even after Israel attacked the militant group’s top military commander, Mohammed Deif, whose fate remains unclear. Israel says another senior Hamas militant was killed in the attack, which local health officials said killed 90 Palestinians, including children.

International mediators are working to push Israel and Hamas toward an agreement that would end the fighting and release about 120 hostages held by the militant group in the Gaza Strip.

The strikes on late July 15 and early July 16 hit four homes, according to emergency officials. Related Press A journalist saw the bodies, some of them wrapped in blankets and floral cloths, as they were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Clouds of smoke from Israeli attacks rose over the city.

The military said it had carried out “targeted attacks on terror targets” in central Gaza, without providing further details. No further details about the targets were immediately provided.

In southern Gaza, nine people were killed in two separate attacks on the night of July 15, medical officials and AP Journalists. Four people were killed in an explosion in a house in eastern Khan Younis, and five others were killed in an attack on a road in the southernmost part of Rafah, according to paramedics who transported the bodies to Nasser Hospital.

A AP A journalist counted the bodies in the hospital before a funeral took place outside its gates.

According to the military, air force aircraft attacked around 40 targets in the Gaza Strip in recent days, including observation posts, Hamas military structures and buildings rigged with explosives.

The war in Gaza, sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack, has killed more than 38,600 people, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian coastal territory, displacing most of its 2.3 million residents and causing widespread hunger.

The Hamas attack in October left 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, and about 250 were taken hostage by the terrorists. About 120 people are still in captivity, and about a third of them are said to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

Violence has also escalated in the West Bank. On July 16, a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli policeman, slightly wounding him, before another policeman opened fire and killed the attacker, who was identified as a 19-year-old from Gaza.