Israeli air and ground forces pounded eastern Gaza City overnight, killing at least 11 people, Palestinian medics said on Tuesday, as senior Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya arrived in Cairo to discuss reviving a stalled U.S.-backed ceasefire plan.
The strikes hit homes in Gaza City’s Zeitoun suburb, killing seven, and an apartment building in the city centre, killing four, witnesses said. Additional Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza killed nine people, including a couple and their child in Khan Younis, and four others in a tent camp in Mawasi.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the reports, adding that it takes measures to minimize civilian harm, while claiming its forces had killed dozens of militants in northern Gaza in the past month.
Hamas officials said their meetings with Egyptian mediators, due to start Wednesday, will focus on ending the war, boosting aid deliveries, and alleviating the humanitarian crisis. “Hamas believes negotiation is the only way to end the war and is open to discuss any ideas that would secure an end to the war,” a Palestinian official told Reuters.
The talks follow the collapse in late July of indirect negotiations in Qatar over a U.S. proposal for a 60-day truce and hostage release deal. Key sticking points remain, including the scale of any Israeli military withdrawal and demands for Hamas to disarm, a condition the group rejects before the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas says it is willing to hand over Gaza governance to a non-partisan committee but not to relinquish its weapons prematurely.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed, with plans to expand Israeli military control over Gaza. Critics, including Israel’s military chief, warn such operations could endanger hostages and Israeli troops, and worsen conditions for the one million Palestinians still in the Gaza City area.
The humanitarian toll continues to climb. Gaza’s health ministry reported that five more people — including two children, died from starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing such deaths to 227 since the war began, including 103 children.
The war, which erupted after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, has since claimed more than 61,000 Palestinian lives, according to local health authorities.
Foreign ministers from 24 countries, including Britain, France, Japan, Canada, and Australia, on Tuesday urged Israel to allow unrestricted humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning that the crisis had reached “unimaginable levels.”
Palestinians scramble to collect aid supplies from trucks that entered through Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, August 12, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
Israel denies responsibility for the hunger crisis, accusing Hamas of diverting aid, and says it has introduced daily pauses in fighting and safe corridors for relief convoys.
Written By Rodney Mbua
