At least 7 children were among those killed by an Israeli strike on Khan Younis on Tuesday evening [Getty]
Israeli forces have killed at least 49 Palestinians in Gaza in the past day, according to medical officials.
A wave of Israeli strikes hit Gaza’s southern district of Khan Younis on Tuesday evening, killing a dozen people, seven of them children, officials said.
At least five strikes targeted parts of Khan Younis, including one in the Al-Mawasi area where thousands of displaced Palestinians are living in tents along the coast.
Four children were killed when a drone strike hit their tent in the Al-Mawasi area, the territory’s health ministry reported.
A witness told AFP that several tents caught fire from the strike, which also wounded more than 20 people.
Five people, including three children, were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in Khan Younis, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.
Two people were killed when a strike hit a car in Khan Yunis, while another two were killed when an apartment was hit.
They came as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha on a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli captives.
In recent months, the Israeli military has focused its offensive on northern districts of Gaza, particularly the town of Jabalia and its adjacent refugee camp. The offensive has targeted shelters for displaced Palestinians, hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure, with tens of thousands forced to march south by Israeli forces.
“We won’t stop. We will bring them (Hamas) to the point where they understand that they must return all hostages,” Israel’s army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told troops during a visit to Jabalia late on Monday.
“They see, every single day, what you are doing to them, and they understand that this is becoming unbearable,” he said, according to a statement released by the military.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,885 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
