Palestinians in Gaza Face Israeli Strikes During Ceasefire Talks

Recently, Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed and hurt dozens of Palestinians. Talks are still going on about finding a way to end the fighting in the besieged area. Medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that on Monday, Israeli bombs hurt about 40 people north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of Gaza. In the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis, there were also reports of deaths, including children.

The Palestinian Civil Defense said it found the bodies of four people killed by Israeli bombs in Nuseirat and one person died in Khirbet al-Adas, which is north of Rafah. The Gaza Health Ministry said earlier on Monday that at least 49 people had died in the last 24 hours. This brought the total number of Palestinians killed in the war to 45,854. Since the war began in October 2023, Israel has been killing dozens of Palestinians every day in Gaza. It has also put a suffocating lockdown on the area and forced almost all of its people to leave.

The Gaza Government Media Office said on Monday that eight homeless Palestinians have died in the past few weeks because of the extreme cold. They warned that the number could rise because of how bad things are in the territory. In a statement, the office said, “We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the worsening of humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip. We also hold the American administration and countries that have supported and taken part in the genocide fully responsible.”It asked Arab and Muslim countries, as well as foreign organizations, to step in right away to save civilians in Gaza.

On Monday, the World Food Program (WFP) said that Israeli troops had fired on one of its convoys the day before. It said that the shooting, which did not hurt anyone, was “unacceptable.”

When Israeli forces shot at a marked WFP convoy near the Wadi Gaza checkpoint on January 5, the WFP said in a statement, “The World Food Program strongly condemns the horrifying incident. The lives of our staff were put at great risk, and the vehicles were rendered immobile.”There are arrest warrants out for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes they are accused of committing in Gaza, such as using “starvation as a method of warfare.”Even though there is a lot of violence and need for help in Gaza, diplomatic attempts to reach a ceasefire deal that would free Israeli prisoners held by Hamas and other Palestinian groups have continued.

On Monday, Hamas officials told several news outlets that the group is ready to free 34 Israeli prisoners as the first step in a deal that would also free an unknown number of Palestinian inmates held by Israel. It’s not clear how many of the Israeli prisoners on the first list are still living. Hamas says that since the war began, Israeli bombing has killed several prisoners. Monday, Israeli news outlets said that Mossad chief David Barnea had put off a trip to Doha to finalize the deal while Israel waited for Hamas to respond to a plan. If the prisoners are not freed by the time he retakes office on January 20, Donald Trump, the next president of the United States, said again on Monday that “hell will pay.”