Israeli strikes killed 19 people in Gaza overnight as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to the region to push for a cease-fire and the release of hostages being held by militant group Hamas.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that the latest Israeli bombardments across Gaza early Sunday struck a home in the town of Deir al-Balah that left a woman and her six children dead, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The news service noted that an AP reporter counted the bodies at the hospital.
The children’s grandfather, Mohammed Awad Khatab, told reporters outside the hospital that his daughter was with her husband and her children when the house was struck, according to AP. The children’s ages ranged from 18 months to 5 years and four of them were quadruplets. The husband was also hospitalized after the strike.
The AP reported that a separate strike in the northern town of Jabaliya killed two men, a woman and her daughter, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Awda Hospital said that another strike in central Gaza killed four people, while the Nasser Hospital said that a separate strike near the southern city of Khan Younis on Saturday killed four people, the AP reported.
The recent strikes come days after the Gaza Health Ministry reported that the Palestinian death toll surpassed 40,000 since the war started last October. The ministry, which does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths, said the actual toll could be thousands of people higher due to people being buried by rubble.
Blinken traveled to Israel on Saturday to push for a cease-fire agreement and to secure the release of the hostages. The AP reported that mediators from the U.S. Egypt and Qatar said that they were closing in on a deal after two days of discussions.
The AP said that the proposal would require Hamas to release all the hostages abducted during the Oct. 7 attack. Israel would also withdraw its forces from Gaza and release Palestinian prisoners, according to AP.
President Biden said Friday that the two sides are at the closest point yet of reaching a deal but cautioned that more work needs to be done.
“I don’t want to jinx anything … we’re not there yet,” Biden said from the Oval Office. “But we’re much, much closer than we were three days ago.”
The Associated Press contributed.