DEIR AL BALAR, Gaza (AP) — Israeli forces carried out three airstrikes on a refugee camp in central Gaza late Saturday night, killing at least 13 people, a Palestinian health official said, as ceasefire talks in Cairo appeared to be making progress.
Among the dead in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps were three children and one woman, Palestinian emergency services said, as they transported the bodies to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. A body count by Associated Press reporters at the hospital found 13 bodies.
Earlier, medical teams delivered a live baby to a Palestinian woman who was killed in an airstrike on her home in Nuseira late on Thursday night.
Ola al-Kurd, 25, was killed in the blast along with six others, but paramedics rushed her to Al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza in an attempt to save her unborn baby, where doctors told The Associated Press a few hours later a baby boy was born.
The newborn, who has not yet been named, is in a stable condition but is lacking oxygen and is in an incubator, Dr. Halil Dajlan said on Friday.
“Ola’s husband and other relatives survived yesterday’s attack, but everyone else died,” Majid al-Kurd, a cousin of the dead woman, told The Associated Press on Saturday.
“Doctors say the baby is in good health,” he added.
The war in GazaThe Palestinian conflict, which began with an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war has wreaked a humanitarian disaster on the Palestinian coast, displacing much of the population of 2.3 million and sparking widespread famine.
Hamas’ October offensive killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and the militants took about 250 hostages. Israeli officials say about 120 people remain in captivity, about a third of whom are believed to have died.
Gaza health officials say thousands of women and children have died in the war between Israel and Hamas. In April, a premature Palestinian baby was Rescued from the womb of a dead mother However, he died a few days later.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 20-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli forces late Friday in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army said its forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians who were hurling stones at Israeli troops in the town of Beit Umar.
Witnesses said suspect Ibrahim Zakek was not directly involved in the clashes but was standing nearby.
“I just looked at them and they shot him in the head. I got him out of here and took him to the clinic,” Tare Abu Hashem said.
Hamas on Saturday identified Zakek as one of its members, and the militant group’s green flag was draped around his body at his funeral.
There has been a surge in violence in the region since the Gaza war began. At least 577 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli artillery fire in the West Bank since then, according to the Ramallah Health Ministry, which tracks Palestinian deaths.
In Cairo, international mediators, including the United States, are continuing to press Israel and Hamas for a phased agreement to stop fighting and release some 120 hostages in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel to release Israeli hostages held by the group in the Gaza Strip was “within the 10-yard line,” but added: “We know that last 10 yards is the hardest to reach.”
Negotiations between the warring parties have been repeatedly stopped and restarted fruitlessly since a one-week ceasefire in November, with Hamas and Israel repeatedly accusing each other of undermining efforts to reach an agreement.
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Jeffrey reported from the West Bank city of Ramallah.
