Israeli strikes kill 15 people in Gaza over past day, Palestinian medics say

CAIRO — Israeli military strikes have killed at least 15 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave's health ministry said on Sunday (March 16), as Arab and US mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the January 19 truce that halted large-scale fighting in Gaza.

Israel's military has said its forces have intervened to thwart threats by "terrorists" approaching its troops or planting bombs since the ceasefire took effect.

Gaza's health ministry said most of the latest deaths were on Saturday when an Israeli airstrike killed nine Palestinians including four journalists in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said six men that it had identified as members of the armed wings of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad militant group had been killed in the strike. It said some of the militants had operated "under the cover of journalists".

Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said the military's statement about the incident included the names of people who were not present.

It was based on inaccurate social media reports "without even bothering to verify the facts", Marouf said.

At least four more Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli strikes on Saturday, the Gaza health officials said.

An Israeli drone had fired a missile at a group of Palestinians in the town of Juhr Eldeek in central Gaza on Sunday, killing a 62-year-old man and wounding several others, the medics said. Several others were hurt when an Israeli drone fired a missile towards a group of people in Rafah, they added.

The Israeli military said it was not familiar with the reported drone strikes.

Later on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian near the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, medics said. The Israeli military said in a statement it struck a "terrorist" attempting to plant a bomb on the ground.

Ceasefire talks

Persistent bloodshed in Gaza underscores the fragility of the three-stage ceasefire agreement mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, which have stepped in to hammer out a deal between Israel and Hamas over how to proceed.

Israel wants to extend the ceasefire's first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due to begin on March 2.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue talks based on the mediators' response to a US proposal for the release of 11 living hostages and half of the dead captives.

Hamas on Friday said it had agreed to release American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the hostages if Israel agreed to begin talks immediately on implementing the second phase of the agreement. Israel accused Hamas of waging "psychological warfare" on the families of hostages.

An Israeli delegation was in Egypt discussing a possible deal with senior Egyptian officials that would release more hostages, Netanyahu's office said on Sunday.

The war began when Hamas led a cross-border raid into southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, displaced most of the population and reduced much of the territory to rubble.

Source: Reuters