More than 60 Palestinians are killed in Israeli attacks in the south and centre of the Gaza Strip, including in the “security zone”

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed more than 60 Palestinians in southern and central Gaza During the night and into Tuesday, an earthquake struck a “safe zone” declared by Israel, where thousands of displaced people were staying.

The day’s deadliest attack occurred in the afternoon near a gas station outside the southern town of Khan Younis in Muwasi, a coastal region that is part of the humanitarian “safe zone” where the Israeli military has offered Palestinians refuge to avoid offensives elsewhere.

Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said 17 people were killed. The surrounding areas are teeming with tent camps.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the attack, which occurred in the same area where Gaza health officials said more than 90 Palestinians, including children, were killed by an attack on Saturday, which according to Israeli sources was directed against the top military commander of Hamas, Mohammed DeifHis status remained unclear.

The new airstrikes came as Israel and Hamas continued to weigh up the latest ceasefire proposalHamas has said the talks were intended to end the nine-month war would continue even after Israel attacked Deif.

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.

Other attacks hit the Nuseirat and Zawaida refugee camps in central Gaza. Attacks on four houses killed at least 24 people, including 10 women and four children. Another attack hit a school in Nuseirat that had been converted into a makeshift shelter, killing at least nine people. An Associated Press journalist saw the bodies, some wrapped in blankets and a floral cloth, as they were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, where hospital officials announced the death toll.

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

Further attacks in Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah on Monday night killed 12 people, according to medical officials and AP journalists. An AP journalist counted the dead at the hospital before a funeral was held 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-controlled 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 Tuesday, 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.

___

For more AP reports, see https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war