Crucial talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza have stalled, as the number of deaths and injuries continues to rise sharply in the past 24 hours amid a relentless IDF bombing campaign across the Strip.
Israeli forces have intensified their attacks on residential areas in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, Nuseirat leaving scores of Palestinians dead or wounded.
At least 39 Palestinians were killed Saturday in Israeli airstrikes that hit multiple locations across the Gaza, according to medical and local sources in the Palestinian territory.
An airstrike on Jamal Abdel Nasser Street, opposite the Islamic University in western Gaza City, killed a mother and her three children.
In the city’s eastern Al-Tuffah neighbourhood, four women were killed and 10 other civilians wounded when an Israeli missile hit a house near Yaffa School.
Three members of the same family were killed in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City after an airstrike targeted a residential apartment.
Two more Palestinians were killed in a separate strike on a home in Gaza City’s Al-Rimal neighbourhood.
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Ceasefire talks falter
Whilst the Israeli on-slaught continues on the civilian population of Gaza, reports say that the much anticipated ceasefire talks in Doha have reached an apparent deadlock.
Sources say that the areas of disagreement between Hamas and Israel include Israel’s insistence on the right to resume attacks after the 60 day period and the proposal to move virtually the entire population of Gaza to one place in the South.
Other areas of contention include Israel’s demand to keep all food distribution in Gaza in the hands of the highly controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) the employees of which have been shooting and killing hungry Palestinians queuing up for food.
The indirect talks over a U.S. proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are nonetheless expected to continue, the sources said.
The talks have been facilitated by Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani and senior Egyptian intelligence officials, and attended by U.S. envoy Brett McGurk.
The mediators have relayed dozens of verbal and written messages between the Hamas delegation and the Israeli delegation, which has included military, security and political officials.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for an end to the conflict, according to his public statements, alleging that a ceasefire close; possibly days away from completion.
This latest development suggests that the Trump-backed effort to secure a ceasefire deal may be on the verge of total collapse.
Gaza under attack
In the central Gaza Strip, a child was killed and others injured when a home near Al-Hassaina School west of the Nuseirat refugee camp was bombed.
Local sources said an Israeli drone also struck a tent sheltering displaced families in the Al-Mansura area of Deir al-Balah, killing seven Palestinians, including four from the same family.
Two women were also killed when an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment in the eastern part of the city.
Near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, three Palestinians were killed when a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians was targeted.
In Khan Younis, eleven Palestinians, including children and a woman, were killed when Israeli warplanes bombed tents sheltering displaced families near the Kuwaiti Hospital in Al-Mawasi area.
Separately, rescue teams recovered the bodies of two more victims from the Sheikh Nasser neighborhood in Khan Younis.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, killing over 57,800 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children.
The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and the spread of diseases.
Surge in West Bank violence
Illegal Israeli settlers killed two Palestinians Friday in northern Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and set up a tent on top of a hill in the town of Sa’ir near Hebron in preparation for a new settlement outpost.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Saif al-Din Kamel Abdul Karim Muslat, 23, died after being brutally beaten by illegal settlers in the town of Sinjil.
Hours later, the ministry said Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, was killed after being shot by illegal settlers in the town.
It said that “the medical report confirmed his death as a result of a live bullet wound to the chest, which penetrated the back, and that he was left to bleed for hours.”
In Sa’ir, in northern Hebron, illegal settlers erected a tent on Jabal al-Hadib hill in what locals said is a step toward establishing a new outpost, according to Bassam Al-Qawasmeh, one of the area landowners.
Al-Qawasmeh said settlers previously fenced off hundreds of dunums on the hill and prevented owners from entering, under the protection of the Israeli army.
He added that “everything happening is with the backing and incitement of the Israeli government,” warning that settlers “try to seize a small area first, then expand gradually to build a larger settlement and confiscate thousands of dunums.”
He stressed that “Palestinians will not allow this and will defend their land at any cost.”
The move comes days after illegal settlers established another new outpost on Jabal al-Jumjuma in Halhul, north of Hebron, where mobile rooms were placed and raised an Israeli flag.
According to the Palestinian Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, the number of illegal settlers in the West Bank reached around 770,000 by the end of 2024, spread across 180 settlements and 256 outposts, including 138 designated as agricultural or grazing outposts.
The Commission also recorded 2,153 settler attacks in the first half of the year alone, resulting in the killing of four Palestinians.
Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, at least 998 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice in the Hague declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
