Hospital workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 42 people in Gaza late Thursday into Friday, as mediators were dispatched to resume ceasefire talks in Doha.
Staff at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah told The Associated Press that more than a dozen women and children were killed in attacks that hit targets in central Gaza, including Nuseirat, Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al-Balah.
Israeli attacks hit many of the same areas Thursday, bringing the death toll over the past two days to at least 110 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Freelance journalist Omar al-Derawi was among those killed Friday, according to the AP. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in December that more than 130 Palestinian reporters had been killed in the war.
On the social media platform X, the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, said Friday that fighter jets and aircraft attacked about 40 Hamas “terrorist concentration points and command and control complexes” throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours in a joint operation of the Israeli Air Force and the IDF Southern Command.
The IDF said dozens of Hamas terrorists operated from the compounds, some of which were established in spaces that previously were used as schools.
“This is another example of Hamas's cynical and systematic use of civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip for terrorist purposes,” the IDF said.
The Israeli military said it took many steps prior to the attacks to prevent harming civilians, “including the use of precision weapons, aerial observations, and additional intelligence information.”
The IDF also reported early Friday it intercepted a drone and shot down a missile, each launched from Yemen. From its X account, the IDF said the drone was intercepted before it crossed into Israeli territory, and that no alerts were activated.
The statement said the missile was intercepted and shot down over south-central Israel, with fragments falling the area of Modi'in. No damage was reported, and the incident is under investigation, the statement said.
On Wednesday, Israel warned it would intensify its strikes against Hamas if the militant group continued to hold the hostages it took in its October 7, 2023, terror attack and launches rockets at Israel.
The latest attacks on Gaza come as an Israeli delegation reportedly is in Doha, to continue negotiations toward a ceasefire deal with Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Thursday he authorized the delegation from the country's intelligence services and military.
On Friday, President Joe Biden's administration, which is helping to broker the talks, urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, "Hamas started this war … and Hamas can easily end that suffering by signing on to this new hostage deal, which we are still trying to work to conclude."
The war in Gaza began with Hamas militants’ October 7, 2023, terror attack, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 people as hostages. About 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with at least one-third of them believed to be dead.
Israel's counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians and injured more than 108,000, according to the health ministry in the enclave. The ministry does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.
The war has leveled wide areas of Gaza and displaced 90% of its 2.3 million people.
Hamas and Hezbollah have been designated as terror groups by the United States, Britain and other Western countries.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
