Israeli strikes kill at least 30 in Gaza as ceasefire talks set to resume – Technologist

Gaza’s civil defense agency said around 30 people were killed in Israeli bombardments on Friday, January 3, as Hamas said indirect negotiations for a truce in the war were set to resume in Qatar later.

The Israeli military said three rockets targeted its territory from the Gaza Strip, the latest in a flurry of launches by militants in the devastated Palestinian territory.

“Friday was a harsh day for the residents of Gaza, particularly in Gaza City, due to the continual Israeli bombardment,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal declared, adding several children were among the dead. Seven people were killed in an Israeli strike in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, Bassal said.

The Israeli military said that over the previous 24 hours, “the Israeli air force struck approximately 40 Hamas terrorist gathering points”. Some of the targets “were embedded in areas that previously served as schools”, it charged.

Bassal denied the allegation. He accused the military of “preventing food and drinking water from reaching dozens of medical staff, patients and wounded” at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahia. He said the hospital had been sending out distress calls since Thursday, adding that it was now “just a pile of rubble and walls. There’s no hospital.”

The military declared it had not struck the Indonesian Hospital over the past day or damaged any essential equipment. It said “There is no need to evacuate the hospital,” adding that it was coordinating with hospital officials about delivering humanitarian assistance.

‘Nothing but rubble’

On Sunday, a United Nations team visited the Indonesian Hospital. “Around me there’s nothing but rubble and destruction,” UN aid official Jonathan Whittall said in a video released after the visit.

Israel’s military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centers, an allegation the militants deny.

A report published by the UN Human Rights office on Tuesday said “insufficient information” has been made available to substantiate “vague” Israeli accusations of military use of hospitals.

As violence raged in the Gaza Strip, Hamas said indirect negotiations with Israel were to resume in Qatar later Friday for a truce and hostage release deal. The militant group, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war, said the talks would “focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces”.

Mediators Qatar, Egypt, and the United States have been engaged in months of back-and-forth talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end nearly 15 months of war.

A key obstacle to a deal has been Israel’s reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized Israeli negotiators to continue talks in Doha.

Militants, meanwhile, fired three rockets from Gaza towards Israel, the military said. Such launches have become far rarer than earlier in the war but have intensified since late December as Israel presses on with a three-month offensive in the north of the territory.