KEY POINTS
- Israeli strikes killed 23 people in a single attack on a home near Al-Bureij camp
- US envoy signalled hope for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal
- At least 11 starving Palestinians have died near aid points in southern Gaza in recent days
- Pakistan urged the UN Security Council to act, condemning Israel’s actions as violations of international law
Gaza City, Palestine: Israeli airstrikes killed 44 people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 23 in a single attack on a family home in central Gaza, according to the territory’s civil defence agency.
Meanwhile, a senior US envoy has expressed cautious optimism about the possibility of a new ceasefire and hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas, US outlet Axios reported.
“Forty-four people have been killed in Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip,” civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP.
“Twenty-three people were killed, others injured and several (are) missing following an Israeli strike on the Qreinawi family’s home east of Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.”
Mughayyir also reported “two people killed and several injured by Israeli forces’ gunfire this morning near the American aid centre in the Morag axis, southern Gaza Strip.”
When asked by AFP about the strike in Al-Bureij and the gunfire near the aid centre, the Israeli military said it was looking into them.
The centre, run by a US-backed organisation, is part of a new plan for distributing aid in Gaza that Israel says is meant to keep supplies out of the hands of Hamas, but which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.
In a statement, the military said it had struck “dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” over the past day.
“Among the targets struck were terrorists, military structures, observation and sniper posts that posed a threat to IDF troops in the area, tunnels and additional terrorist infrastructure sites,” it added.
Earlier this month, Israel stepped up its offensive in Gaza. The health ministry in Gaza said Thursday at least 3,986 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended a two-month ceasefire on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,249, mostly civilians.
Optimism about ceasefire
Meanwhile, mediators continue to push for a ceasefire that remains elusive.
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has expressed optimism on a new ceasefire agreement and hostage deal in Gaza, Axios reported.
Hamas said it had reached an agreement with Witkoff on a general framework for a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and unhindered entry of humanitarian aid.
Witkoff made an appearance alongside Trump in the Oval Office and announced he had drafted “a new term sheet” for the president’s approval.
“I have some very good feelings about getting to a temporary ceasefire and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution of that conflict,” Witkoff said.
Witkoff has been negotiating with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top adviser Ron Dermer, as well as with Hamas leaders in Doha through Palestinian-American businessman Bishara Bahbah.
Starvation in Gaza
A Palestinian man seeking aid has been killed near a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid point in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
At least 10 other starving people seeking aid have been killed near one of the US and Israeli-sponsored aid points in the southern Strip in recent days.
In southern Gaza, a body was recovered from under the rubble of a home in Abasan al-Kabira, struck earlier by Israeli bombs.
Pakistan urges UNSC to act
Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council not to remain a bystander while Palestinians were being “slaughtered, maimed and starved”, calling the situation in Gaza “one of the gravest humanitarian crises of our time”, APP reported.
“The cries from Gaza cannot continue to be met with silence — the world cannot afford another day of inaction,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the 15-member UNSC during a debate on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
“The time to act, time to prevent genocide, is now,” APP quoted him as saying. “We must not allow the Israeli atrocities to be normalised, for that would be an affront to international law and human dignity.”
With at least 57 children already dead from hunger, Ambassador Ahmad said that “starvation is no longer a threat but a grim reality, with humanitarian convoys blocked or attacked”.
