Mother and her six children among those killed in Israeli strikes as ceasefire talks continue

LAST UPDATE | 18 Aug

ISRAELI STRIKES ACROSS Gaza killed at least 24 people overnight and into this morning, including a woman and her six children.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog as ceasefire talks continue in Qatar.

The latest Israeli bombardment included a strike early today on a home in the central town of Deir al-Balah that killed a woman and her six children, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Mohammed Awad Khatab, the children’s grandfather, said his daughter, a school teacher, was with her husband and their six children when their house was struck.

He said the children ranged in age from 18 months to 15 years, and four of them were quadruplets. He said the father is in hospital.

Khatab said of the killings: “What did they do? Did they kill any of the Jews?… Will this provide security to Israel?”

A strike in the northern town of Jabaliya hit two apartments in a residential building, killing two men, a woman and her daughter, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Another two strikes in central Gaza killed nine people, according to the Awda Hospital.

Late on Saturday, a strike near the southern city of Khan Younis killed four people from the same family, including two women, according to Nasser Hospital

From the Israeli-designated safe zone in southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi, Lina Saleha, 44, said she could hear “constant artillery shelling” and the rumble of tanks.

“There is no safe place in Gaza,” she told AFP.

The Israeli tanks are getting closer. That’s not a good sign and we’re terrified and afraid.

The latest killings pushed the Gaza health ministry’s war death toll to 40,099.

Blinken visit

Making his ninth trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war broke out last October, Blinken is due to meet Israeli leaders before truce talks resume in Cairo in the coming days.

US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have said negotiations to clinch a ceasefire in the more than 10-month-old war are making progress, and US President Joe Biden said “we are closer than we have ever been”.

But Hamas political bureau member Sami Abu Zuhri undercut the cautious optimism, telling AFP that signs of progress after two days of talks in Doha were “an illusion”.

“We are not facing a deal or real negotiations, but rather the imposing of American diktats,” he said.

Netanyahu has reiterated his claim that Hamas is holding up the prospect of a deal.

“Hamas, up to this moment, remains obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure should be directed at Hamas and (Yahya) Sinwar, not at the Israeli government,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, referring to the Hamas chief.

Hamas said today that Netanyahu was “fully responsible for thwarting the efforts of the mediators, obstructing an agreement, and (bears) full responsibility for the lives” of hostages in Gaza.

Hamas said it would not send delegates to this latest round of talks, instead urging for the adoption of the three-phase plan put forward by US President Joe Biden at the end of May, which Biden said Israel has already accepted.

Previous optimism during months of on-off truce talks has proven unfounded.

But the stakes have risen since the late July killings in quick succession of Iran-backed militant leaders, including Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, and as the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip has deepened with a feared polio outbreak.

After mediators announced they had put forward a “bridging proposal” to close remaining gaps between the warring sides, Hamas said it rejected “new conditions” from Israel and called for a plan outlined by Biden in late May to be implemented.

Before Blinken departed for Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called for “heavy pressure” on Hamas to reach a breakthrough.