Children among 12 killed in fresh Israeli strikes

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces pounded the Palestinian territory on Thursday, killing at least 12 people including three girls, 15 months into the war.

The latest strikes came as Qatar, Egypt, and the United States mediate negotiations in Doha between Israel and Hamas for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of hostages.

Three girls and their father were killed when an air strike hit their house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the civil defence agency reported.

Local paramedic Mahmud Awad said he helped transfer the bodies of two girls and their father, Mahmud Abu Kharuf to a hospital.

"Their bodies were found under the rubble of the house that the occupation bombed in the Nuseirat camp," Awad told AFP. He added that the body of the third girl had been found earlier by residents.

In a separate strike, eight people were killed when their house was struck in the town of Jabalia in northern Gaza, where the army has focused its offensive since October 6.

Several more were wounded in that strike, the civil defence agency said.

Israeli air strikes and shelling continues across Gaza, even as mediators push on with their efforts to halt the fighting and secure a deal for the release of hostages still held in Gaza.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Paris that a ceasefire was "very close".

"I hope that we can get it over the line in the time that we have," Blinken said, referring to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20.

But if not, "I believe that when we get that deal — and we'll get it — it'll be on the basis of the plan that President (Joe) Biden put before the world back in May."

In May, Biden unveiled a three-phase plan for the release of the hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.

Meanwhile a report from the government media office in Gaza revealed that the Israeli occupation forces had wiped out 1,600 Palestinian families during their ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip over the past 460 days.

It added that the Israeli forces expunged their names from the civil registry by murdering fathers, mothers, and the entire family members, with the total number of martyrs surging to 5,612.

The Israeli forces uprooted 3,471 Palestinian families, leaving only one survivor per family, totaling 9,000 martyrs and committed 10,015 massacres, including 7,182 families, the report said, adding that the death toll of the offensive reached 46,006, with 109,274 wounded and 11,200 missing, 70% of whom were women and children.

In addition, the report indicated that the number of martyrs among children reached 17,841, including 240 infants born and killed during the genocide, 858 children under one year old, and 44 who died from malnutrition.

Eight people died due to harsh cold in refugee camps, seven of whom were children, with the number of female martyrs climbing to 12,298. Additionally, 1,068 medical staff, 94 civil defense personnel, 202 journalists, and 736 aid workers were killed in 149 Israeli targeted attacks, the report continued.

The report stated that 35,074 children are orphaned, with 12,132 widows, while 3,500 children are at risk of starvation, noting that 6,600 Gazans were detained by the Israeli occupation forces, including 331 health workers three of them were executed in captivity, alongside 43 journalists, and 26 civil defense personnel.

The ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip forced 2mn people to flee their homes, with the number of dilapidated tents reaching 110,000, in addition to entirely decimating 823 mosques, 158 severely, along with three churches and 19 cemeteries out of 60, while 2,300 bodies were snatched from multiple graves, the report highlighted.

It pointed out that the Israeli offensive entirely devastated 161,600 residential units while 194,000 were partially damaged, and 82,000 rendered uninhabitable.