At least four people, including two children, were killed today in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, health officials reported, as mediators held talks with leaders of the Palestinian militant movement Hamas on implementing a peace plan.
A Hamas official and a diplomat close to the negotiations, which are being mediated in Cairo, stated that the talks are “positive” and that “progress is being made,” according to Reuters.
The diplomat said that negotiations are ongoing and that progress is being made toward a plan that would foresee the withdrawal of all heavy and light weaponry from use in Gaza.
Meanwhile, medical services reported that an Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in Khan Yunis, in the south of the enclave, killed a man and an eight-year-old girl.
In the Bureij refugee camp, in the central part of the Strip, a house was hit, killing a one-year-old child and injuring at least eight people, doctors said.
In another Israeli strike, a Palestinian on a bicycle near a tent camp housing displaced families in Gaza City was hit, resulting in one death and ten injuries.
The Israeli military stated that the strikes targeted Hamas operatives.
In Cairo, Hamas leaders held talks with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey on implementing the second phase of the plan for Gaza proposed by United States President Donald Trump.
A Hamas official stated today that the group is coming with a “positive and good” response, but did not say whether it had agreed to complete disarmament — a key point of contention in the negotiations over the past four months.
Hamas wants Israel to commit to ending attacks on Gaza and withdrawing its army, and sources close to the movement claim it is ready to place heavy weaponry “under supervision and store it” in a Palestinian body, rather than hand it over to Jerusalem.
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