GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Dec 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Gaza's civil 
defence agency said Israeli strikes overnight and early Sunday killed at 
least 28 Palestinians, including at one family's home and at a school 
building the military said was used by Hamas.

There was no let-up in the violence in the Gaza Strip more than 14 months 
into the Israel-Hamas war, even as Palestinian groups involved in the 
fighting said a ceasefire deal was "closer than ever".

Civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement that at least 13 
people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza's Deir el-
Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has confirmed 
a separate strike further north, on a school in Gaza City.

Bassal said that eight people including four children were killed in the 
attack on the school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians 
displaced by the war.

The Israeli military said it had carried out a "precise strike" overnight 
targeting Hamas militants operating there.

A military statement said that a Hamas "command and control centre... was 
embedded inside" the school compound in the city's east, adding that it was 
used "to plan and execute terrorist attacks" against Israeli forces.

Contacted by AFP, an Israeli military spokesperson said they were unable to 
immediately comment on other reported strikes elsewhere in Gaza.

Bassal said an overnight strike killed three people in Rafah, in the south.

And a drone strike early on Sunday hit a car in Gaza City, killing four 
people, Bassal said.

Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war, and two 
other Palestinian armed groups said on Saturday in a rare joint statement 
that an agreement to end the bloodshed was "closer than ever".

The groups, which include Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the 
Liberation of Palestine, said that a truce in Gaza and hostage release deal 
was possible provided Israel does not impose new conditions in negotiations.

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the 
United States, were held last week in Doha, rekindling hope of a potential 
breakthrough after months of stalling.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was "hopeful" for 
a deal, but avoided making any predictions as to when it would materialise.

The unprecedented Hamas attack last year that sparked the war resulted in the 
deaths of 1,208 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally 
based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza, including 34 the 
Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 45,227 people, a 
majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run 
territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.