DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 18 people overnight, including six women and four children, health officials said Tuesday, as Israel and Hamas appeared to be moving closer to a ceasefire deal to end the 15-month war and free dozens of hostages.
Officials expressed growing optimism that a deal could be reached in the coming days after more than a year of negotiations that repeatedly failed.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, meanwhile, fired a missile into central Israel, setting off sirens and sending people fleeing for shelters without causing any casualties. Police said several homes were damaged outside Jerusalem and released a photo of a missile shell casing that crashed into a roof.
Trusted news and daily delights, straight to your inbox
See for yourself — The Yodel is your go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.
Two strikes in the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed two women and their four children, aged between 1 month and 9 years old. One of the women was pregnant and the baby did not survive, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
Twelve other people were killed in two strikes on the southern town of Khan Younis, according to the European Hospital.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel says it only targets militants and accuses them of hiding among civilians in shelters and tent camps for displaced people.
Israel and Hamas have come under renewed pressure to end the conflict in the run-up to the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff recently joined U.S. mediators , Egyptians and Qataris in the Gulf country. capital, Doha.
The phased deal would be based on a framework set out by President Joe Biden in May and approved by the U.N. Security Council.
In the first phase, Hamas would release dozens of the most vulnerable hostages captured in the October 7, 2023 attack that started the war in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners as Israeli forces withdraw from population centers. At least some Palestinians would be allowed to return home and there would be an influx of humanitarian aid.
In the second phase, Hamas says it will release the remaining hostages in exchange for a large number of prisoners, a complete Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the fight until Hamas’s military and government capabilities are destroyed and it no longer poses a threat. The gap between the two parties would be negotiated during the first phase.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in the October 7 attack and kidnapped 250 others. Around a hundred hostages are still being held in Gaza. The Israeli military estimates that at least a third and up to half of them are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, more than half of whom were women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which did not specify how many of the dead were fighters. The Israeli army claims to have killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The offensive has reduced large areas of the territory to rubble and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, including hundreds of thousands crowded into tent camps along the coast where hunger is widespread.
The war spread across the region, sparking more than a year of fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah militants that ended with a tense ceasefire in November. Israel has also exchanged direct fire with Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
The Israeli military said it made several attempts to intercept the missile launched from Yemen early Tuesday and that “the missile was likely intercepted.” He said a previous missile fired from Yemen had also been intercepted.
The Houthis, who captured Yemen’s capital Sanaa and much of the country’s north in 2014, launched a series of missile and drone attacks against Israel and attacked international shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthis say they are fighting in solidarity with the Palestinians, but the vast majority of ships targeted have no connection to the conflict.
___
Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel.
___
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
