By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) -Huge Israeli airstrikes killed extended families in homes in two parts of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Gaza medics said, with Israel’s military saying it had taken out a Hamas weapons storage facility.
In the south of the enclave, meanwhile, residents said Israeli tanks were pushing towards a humanitarian zone on the Mediterranean coast, forcing displaced families to take flight again.
Medics said at least 10 people were confirmed killed in an airstrike on a house in the Daraj suburb of Gaza City that destroyed the building and damaged nearby houses.
Further north, in the town of Beit Lahiya, which has been under Israeli siege since early October, at least 15 people were believed to be dead or missing under the rubble of a house hit by an airstrike around dawn, said medics. Rescuers were unable to reach the site to confirm the toll.
At least 10 other Palestinians were killed in separate strikes elsewhere in Gaza City and Beit Lahiya, medics said.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it struck a Hamas weapons storage facility that served as a sniper post which posed an immediate threat to troops operating in the area.
The military said that steps had been taken to mitigate civilian casualties “including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence.”
In Beit Lahiya, Israel has been operating since October in what it calls an offensive to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping. Palestinians say the army aims to depopulate a buffer zone on the enclave’s northern edge, which Israel denies.
In the southern part of the enclave, in Rafah near the border with Egypt, Israeli tanks pushed deeper towards the western area of Mawasi, forcing dozens of families to flee northwards towards Khan Younis, residents said.
Hours later, residents said the army blew up several houses in the area and set several tents ablaze.
Israel has previously designated Mawasi, along the Mediterranean coast, as a humanitarian area. Thousands of Palestinians have lived there in tents for months, having obeyed Israeli orders to move there from other areas for safety.
Footage circulating on social media showed lines of thick black and grey smoke rising from the area beside the tent encampment. Reuters could not immediately verify the time or exact location of the images.
Contacted by Reuters, the Israeli military said it had no information corresponding to the reports of tanks advancing towards Mawasi.
After months during which ceasefire talks had stalled, efforts to reach a truce in the 14-month-long war, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, have resumed in recent weeks, though with no breakthrough yet.
On Monday, an official with knowledge of the talks told Reuters an Israeli technical team was in Doha for working-level talks with Qatari mediators on “remaining issues” in a deal for a ceasefire and release of hostages. The talks are focused on bridging gaps on a deal that U.S. President Joe Biden outlined more than six months ago, the official said.
Egypt’s state-affiliated Al-Qahera news said on Tuesday there were “extensive” Egyptian-Qatari efforts with all parties to reach a ceasefire deal.
The war began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel then launched an air and land offensive that has killed more than 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
The campaign has displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.
(Reporting by Nidal al-MughrabiEditing by Andrew Heavens, Peter Graff and Rosalba O’Brien)
