Gaza ceasefire talks at ‘delicate phase’
Talks on a Gaza ceasefire and a release of hostages are at a "delicate phase", said Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani yesterday.
"We are trying as much as possible to address this stumbling block," he added, without giving further details.
Qatar's premier condemned what he described as the policy of "collective punishment" still followed by Israel in its offensive against the enclave's ruling Palestinian group Hamas and the latest escalation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The ceasefire discussions, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, are continuing as a humanitarian crisis devastates Palestinians in Gaza with severe shortages of food, medicine and hospital care.
Israel's has continued to pound Gaza in an air and ground offensive which has killed at least 33,899 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities yesterday.
Fifty-six Palestinians have been killed and 89 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added in a statement.
Israeli air strikes hit a playground and busy market in Maghazi refugee camp. Another strike on Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood killed at least seven people and wounded 20 others.
Video from the scene showed the bodies of the victims were being transported to the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.
"There was a tent where people gathered to communicate with their families in Rafah and Khan Younis. Children, young men, and women were martyred inside the tent," Islam al-Jaidi, a resident and an eyewitness of the attack, said.
According to the latest report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), surging settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has been aided by the Israeli military, whose forces have either taken part in or failed to protect Palestinians.
In one instance, Israeli soldiers participated alongside illegal settlers in an attack on the Palestinian Bedouin village of Wadi as-Seeq, the report said.
In a statement marking the Palestinian Prisoner's Day, Hamas emphasised that freeing its prisoners from Israeli jails is a "top priority", reports Al Jazeera Online.
"[Israel] continues to practice the most heinous crimes against prisoners inside prisons and detention centres, including medical negligence, torture and direct killing," said Hamas.
In a separate development, Lebanon's Hezbollah group said it attacked an Israeli army base yesterday, with Israeli medics reporting the strike wounded 14 people, including two seriously, in a northern village.
Hezbollah said it launched "a combined attack with guided missiles and explosive drones on a new military reconnaissance command centre in Arab al-Aramshe," an Arab-majority village of northern Israel near the Lebanese border.
The Galilee Medical Centre in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya said in a statement it had received "14 wounded people... including two who are seriously wounded".
- Playground in Maghazi refugee camp struck
- Israel follows policy of collective punishment: Qatar PM
- Death toll in enclave rises to 33,899
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