Medics said on Monday that 25 Palestinians were killed and others were injured in Israeli air strikes that targeted 3 homes in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, while a delegation from the Hamas movement arrived in Cairo to hold a new round of talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
In Gaza City in the northern Strip, health officials said that Israeli planes bombed two homes, killing at least four people and wounding others.
They added that two brothers were killed in the attack on one of the two houses.
The strikes on Rafah, which shelters more than a million Palestinians who fled months of Israeli bombing in the northern Gaza Strip, came hours before Egypt hosted Hamas leaders to discuss a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
The Israeli army stated that it was verifying these reports.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said during the World Economic Forum “Davos” in Riyadh, Monday, that Egypt is optimistic about a proposal regarding a truce and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, but is awaiting the response of Israel and Hamas.
Shukri added: “We hope that the proposal took into account the positions of both sides, and tried to push them to moderation, and we await the final decision.”
In response to a question about the new round of talks in Cairo, a Palestinian official close to the mediation efforts told Reuters: “Things look better this time,” but he refused to talk about whether an agreement was imminent.
Israel pledged to eliminate Hamas, which runs Gaza, in a military operation that has claimed the lives of more than 34,000 Palestinians so far, according to health authorities in Gaza.
The war caused the displacement of most of the Strip’s population of 2.3 million people and the destruction of most of its parts.
Israel says that Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and an attack on it has been expected for weeks, but foreign governments as well as the United Nations have expressed concern that the attack may lead to a humanitarian disaster given the number of displaced people in the region.
Hamas leaders said on Sunday that a delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, the movement’s deputy head in Gaza, will discuss the ceasefire proposal that Hamas presented to mediators from Qatar and Egypt, as well as the Israeli response.
The mediators, with the support of the United States, intensified their efforts to reach an agreement as Israel threatened to invade Rafah.
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