Israel and Hamas have resumed negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, while the death toll from fresh Israeli airstrikes continues to rise.
Israel confirmed on Saturday that negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal had resumed in Qatar, as rescuers said more than 30 people had been killed in fresh bombardment of the territory. The civil defence agency said a dawn air strike on the home of the al-Ghoula family in Gaza City killed 11 people, seven of them children. AFP images from the neighbourhood of Shujaiya showed residents combing through smoking rubble.
Bodies including those of small children were lined up on the ground, shrouded in white sheets. As the violence raged, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed that indirect negotiations with Hamas had resumed in Qatar for the release of hostages seized in the October 2023 attacks. The minister told relatives of one of the hostages, woman soldier Liri Albag, that “efforts are under way to free the hostages, notably the Israeli delegation which left yesterday (Friday) for negotiations in Qatar”, his office said. Katz said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given “detailed instructions for the continued negotiations”. He was speaking after Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, released a video of Albag in captivity in Gaza. In the undated, three-and-half-minute recording that AFP has not been able to verify, the 19-year-old conscript called in Hebrew for the Israeli government to secure her release. In response, her family issued an appeal to Netanyahu, saying: “It’s time to take decisions as if it were your own children there.”Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the latest video was “firm and incontestable proof of the urgency of bringing the hostages home”.The militant group, whose October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war, said they would “focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces”
GAZA ISRAEL CEASEFIRE HAMAS HOSTAGES VIOLENCE AIRSTRIKES
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