AT least 40 Palestinians have been killed in attacks on central Gaza by Israel’s military ahead of a new round of international talks.
The “heinous massacre” committed by Israeli forces in Deir el-Balah in the central part of the territory injured more than 100 people, Gaza’s government media office said in a statement on Thursday night.
It added that the overwhelming majority of casualties were women and children.
Fidaa Ashour, whose sister was killed in a strike early on Friday in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, said “the world does not feel what we are enduring”.
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Reporting from southern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum said residential homes were “attacked without any prior warning” in the strikes.
In a statement released on Friday, Hamas said the attacks on homes “confirm to the international community that it (Israel) is a rogue entity that does not care about human laws and values”.
More than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
It comes as US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Thursday that negotiations for a ceasefire and the exchange of captives held in the enclave for Palestinian prisoners had been “constructive”.
A Hamas delegation left Cairo on Friday following three days of talks, for which Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu did not send representatives.
The negotiations, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, are expected to continue later on Friday in Paris, with Israel also sending a delegation.
A renewed ceasefire proposal could be crafted in the French capital, but the details remain unclear.
Meanwhile, Israel is seeking open-ended control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip, according to a long-awaited plan put forward by Netanyahu (above).
It was swiftly rejected by Palestinian leaders and runs counter to the US’s vision.
Netanyahu’s (below) plan calls for freedom of action for Israel’s military across a demilitarised Gaza after the war to thwart any security threat.
It says Israel would establish a buffer zone inside Gaza, which is likely to provoke US objections.
The plan also envisions Gaza being governed by local officials who it says would “not be identified with countries or entities that support terrorism and will not receive payment from them”.
It is not clear if any Palestinians would agree to such sub-contractor roles.
Over the past decades, Israel has repeatedly tried and failed to set up hand-picked local Palestinian governing bodies.
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The Palestinian Authority, which administers pockets of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Friday denounced Netanyahu’s plan as “colonialist and racist,” saying it would amount to Israeli reoccupation of Gaza.
The Biden administration wants to see a reformed Palestinian Authority govern both Gaza and the West Bank as a step towards Palestinian statehood.
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