The majority of the 31 Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes in the northern and central Gaza Strip on Wednesday were in the northern enclave’s Beit Lahiya town, according to medical officials.
An Israeli airstrike on a Beit Lahiya home killed at least 22 people, including women and children, according to health officials. Relatives posted the names of the deceased on social media.
Before the building was hit, at least 30 people lived in the multi-story structure, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. Rescue efforts persisted into the morning, leaving several family members unaccounted for.
Israel’s military claimed to be investigating the report.
Medical personnel who spoke to Reuters said that an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip earlier on Wednesday resulted in at least seven Palestinian deaths and numerous injuries.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed two more people, according to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service.
Medical personnel in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, where Israeli forces have been stationed since October, reported that an Israeli airstrike killed and injured multiple people. Rescue personnel reported finding multiple individuals buried beneath the debris of a house.
Two rockets that were fired into Israel from the central Gaza Strip landed in open areas, according to a statement from the Israeli military, but no one was hurt. It demonstrated that Gaza militants could launch rocket attacks even after 14 months of devastating Israeli military and aerial attacks.
Israeli forces have been fighting Hamas militants who are launching attacks from the Jabalia refugee camp, the nearby town of Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun since October 5 in an effort to stop them from regrouping.
Residents and Palestinian officials accuse Israel of establishing a buffer zone by displacing people from the two towns and refugee camp on the enclave’s northern border. Israel disputes these claims.
According to Israeli estimates, Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages in their October 7 attack on Israel, sparking a war between Israel and the group.
Since then, Israel has launched a military campaign in Gaza that has killed over 44,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
A Hamas official told Reuters on Tuesday that Hamas is willing to demonstrate the flexibility required “to end the aggression on our people,” but he declined to reveal the details of the talks.
According to a Palestinian official with knowledge of the mediation effort, Hamas has requested that other factions in Gaza provide a list of all the Israeli and foreign hostages they are holding, whether they are dead or alive, suggesting that the negotiations may be making headway.
While Netanyahu has insisted that the war can only end once Hamas is destroyed, Hamas wants an agreement that would also see the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held captive in Gaza and the incarceration of Palestinians by Israel.
