Gaza: At least 17 dead in Israeli strikes, according to local health authorities


This article was originally published in English

One of the strikes killed five children, aged between two and 11, according to a hospital, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.

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New Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents, according to Palestinian health officials.

The latest round of attacks took place overnight and Wednesday morning, on the eve of new talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the 10-month-old war.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt are hoping to reach an agreement, but the sides remain far apart on several issues, even after months of indirect negotiations.

One of the strikes hit a family home late Tuesday in the Nuseirat refugee camp, located in the central Gaza Strip and built during the 1948 war that led to the creation of the State of Israel. It killed five children, aged two to 11, and their parents, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

An Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies arrive said they had been dismembered by the explosion and the two-year-old child had been decapitated.

In the nearby Al-Maghazi refugee camp, an attack on a house early Wednesday killed four people and wounded others, the hospital said.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Health Ministry’s emergency service said first responders had found the bodies of four men killed in an attack on a residential tower late Tuesday.

Two other people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the northern town of Beit Lahia, the emergency services said. Five people were also injured.

Gaza health officials usually do not specify whether those killed by Israeli strikes are militants or civilians.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes.

Additional sources • adaptation: Serge Duchêne

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