Palestinian children run amid the destruction in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip on January 4, 2025, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An Israeli military strike killed 12 persons in a house in Gaza City early on Saturday (January 4, 2025), bringing the death toll from strikes across Gaza to 62 over the last day, Palestinian medics said, as mediators launched a new ceasefire push in Qatar.

Residents and medics said at least 14 persons had been in the house of the Al-Ghoula family when the strike took place in the early hours, destroying the building.

People scoured the rubble for possible survivors trapped under the debris and medics said several children were among those killed. A few flames and trails of smoke continued to rise from burning furniture in the ruins hours after the attack.

“At about 2 a.m. (00:00 GMT) we were woken up by the sound of a huge explosion,” said Ahmed Ayyan, a neighbour of the Al-Ghoula family, adding that 14 or 15 people had been staying in the house.

“Most of them are women and children, they are all civilians, there is no one there who shot missiles, or is from the resistance,” Ayyan told Reuters.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident.

The military said in a statement on Saturday that its forces had continued their operations this week in Beit Hanoun town in the northern edge of the enclave, where the army has been operating for three months, and had destroyed a military complex that had been used by Hamas.

Later on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike killed three persons in a car east of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, medics said. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in strikes on Friday, bringing the death toll during the past 24 hours to 62, health officials said.

A surge in Israeli operations and the number of Palestinians killed in recent days comes amid a renewed push to reach a ceasefire in the 15-month-old war and return Israeli hostages before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

Israeli mediators were dispatched to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which is helping to broker the talks, urged Hamas on Friday to agree to a deal.

Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement but it was unclear how close the two sides were.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants stormed border communities from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Its military campaign, with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas, has levelled swathes of the enclave, driving most people from their homes, and has killed 45,717 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Gaza City:

The threat of an Israeli ground invasion of the blockaded Gaza Strip “doesn’t scare us and we are ready for it”, Abu Obeideh, the spokesman of Hamas’s military wing, said Monday.

In a televised statement, he said Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were holding 200 people captive since a massive onslaught on Israel’s south on October 7, with about 50 others held by other “resistance factions and in other places”.

“The threat of the occupation (Israel) to launch a ground offensive against our people doesn’t scare us and we are ready for it,” Abu Obeideh said ahead of an expected Israeli invasion more than a week into war.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel in the violence that began with the early morning Hamas attack, according to Israeli officials.

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said earlier Monday Israel had been able to confirm and notify the relatives of 199 people held captives in Gaza.

According to Abu Obeideh, “we will release the foreign prisoners when conditions are ripe”.

He said at least 22 hostages taken from Israel had been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

Overall, more than 2,750 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on the narrow Palestinian enclave since October 7, according to Hamas officials.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)