Israeli attack on Gaza kills 19 people as Blinken travels to region to help finalize ceasefire agreement

Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip killed 19 people overnight, including a woman and her six children, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the region on Sunday to try to broker a ceasefire agreement after months of contentious negotiations.

After two days of talks in Doha, the United States and co-mediators Egypt and Qatar appeared to be getting closer to an agreement. US and Israeli officials expressed cautious optimism. But Hamas signaled resistance to Israel's alleged new demands, and the long-running talks repeatedly stalled.

The proposal calls for a three-stage process in which Hamas would release all the hostages it kidnapped during its October 7 attack, which sparked the most brutal war ever fought between Israelis and Palestinians. In return, Israel would withdraw its troops from Gaza and release Palestinian prisoners.

The mediators hope to end a war that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, forced the vast majority of the territory's 2.3 million residents to flee and sparked a humanitarian disaster. Experts warn of famine and outbreaks of diseases such as polio.

In the attack on October 7, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Of these, around 110 are believed to still be in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli authorities believe around a third are dead. In November, more than 100 hostages were released during a week-long ceasefire.

Among the latest Israeli bombings was an attack early Sunday on a house in the central city of Deir al-Balah that killed a woman and her six children, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital said. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies at the hospital.

Mohammed Awad Khatab, the children's grandfather, said his daughter, a teacher, was with her husband and six children when their home was hit. He said the children were aged between 18 months and 15 years and four of them were quadruplets. He said the father was hospitalized after the attack.

“The six children have become body parts. They were put in a single sack,” he told reporters outside the hospital. “What did they do? Did they kill Jews? … Will this give Israel security?”

An attack in the northern city of Jabaliya hit two apartments in a residential building, killing two men, a woman and her daughter, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Another attack in central Gaza killed four people, according to Awda Hospital. Late Saturday, an attack near the southern city of Khan Younis killed four people from the same family, including two women, according to Nasser Hospital.

Israel claims it is targeting only militant terrorists and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the terror group hides fighters, weapons, tunnels and rockets in residential areas. But months of Israeli shelling have wiped out entire extended families and orphaned thousands of children.

Mediators have been trying to end the fighting for months, but those efforts took on new urgency after Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah vows of revenge following the targeted killings of two senior fighters last month – both attributed to Israel – and fears of a full-scale war across the Middle East.

A US official said on Friday that mediators had begun preparations to implement the latest ceasefire proposal, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office expressed “cautious optimism” that an agreement could be reached.

An Israeli delegation is scheduled to travel to Cairo on Sunday for further talks and Blinken is expected to meet with Netanyahu on Monday.

Hamas has expressed doubts about whether a deal is in sight. The latest proposal differs significantly from an earlier proposal it had accepted in principle. Hamas has rejected Israel's demands for a permanent military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border and a line through Gaza where Israeli forces would search Palestinians returning to their homes. Israel says both are necessary to prevent militants from rearming and returning to the north.

Israel has shown flexibility on the withdrawal from the border corridor, and a meeting between Egyptian and Israeli military officials is scheduled for next week to agree on a withdrawal mechanism, two Egyptian officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private negotiations.

(This article has not been edited by News18 staff and is from the feed of a syndicated news agency – Associated Press.)