Hamas delegation to hold Gaza ceasefire talks in Egypt

Hamas representatives will go to Cairo for talks on a possible ceasefire in Gaza, an official in the Palestinian militant group told AFP.

"A Hamas delegation will go to Cairo tomorrow for several meetings with Egyptian officials to discuss ideas for a ceasefire and a prisoner accord in the Gaza Strip," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

The announcement came two days after a ceasefire went into effect between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.

The United States has also announced a new diplomatic effort with Qatar, Turkey and Egypt to reach a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages taken during Hamas's 7 October 2023, attacks on Israel that set off the current fighting.

That attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,207 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed 44,363 people in Gaza, according to figures from the territory's health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

Some 251 hostages were also taken on 7 October and 97 are believed still in Gaza, including 34 people who the Israeli army says are dead.

The only ceasefire so far, in November 2023, saw the release of about 100 hostages by Hamas and its allies in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have led multiple failed efforts since the start of the year to reach a new ceasefire and hostage release.

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza

Israeli military strike skilled at least 40 Palestinians overnight and on Friday in Gaza, medics said, as efforts to revive Gaza ceasefire talks received a boost with officials from the Palestinian group Hamas headed to Cairo for a new round of talks.

Medics said they had recovered 19 bodies of Palestinians killed in northern areas of Nuseirat, one of the enclave's eight long-standing refugee camps.

Later, an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 Palestinians in a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, medics said.

Others were killed in the northern and southern areas of Gaza, medics added. There was no fresh statement by the Israeli military, but on Thursday it said its forces were continuing to "strike terror targets as part of the operational activity in the Gaza Strip".

Israeli tanks had entered northern and western areas of Nuseirat on Thursday. They withdrew from northern areas on Friday but remained active in western parts of the camp. The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said teams were unable to respond to distress calls from residents trapped in their homes.

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Dozens of Palestinians returned on Friday to areas where the army had retreated to check on damage to their homes.

Medics and relatives covered up dead bodies, including of women, that lay on the road with blankets or white shrouds and carried them away on stretchers.

"Forgive me, my wife, forgive me, my Ibtissam, forgive me, my dear," one grief-stricken man moaned through tears beside her corpse, laid out on a stretcher on the ground.

Medics said an Israeli drone had killed Ahmed Al-Kahlout, head of the Intensive Care Unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, on the northern edge of Gaza, where the army has been operating since early October.

Contacted by Reuters, the Israeli military said it was unaware of a strike occurring in this location or timeframe.

Kamal Adwan Hospital is one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza that barely function now due to shortages of medical, fuel, and food supplies. Most of its medical staff have been detained or expelled by the Israeli army, health officials say.

The Palestinian civil emergency service, Hamas and the Palestinian official news agency WAFA put the number of Palestinians killed in two Israeli strikes in Beit Lahiya in the past 24 hours at 70. There was no immediate confirmation of the figure by the local health ministry.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and accused Israel of "using the weapon of starvation against the people (in northern Gaza) to displace them from their land and homes."

The Israeli army said forces operating in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia since 5 October aimed to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping and waging attacks from those areas. Residents said the army was depopulating the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun as well as the Jabalia refugee camp.