GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Dec 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Gaza's civil
defence agency said on Sunday Israeli strikes killed at least 28
Palestinians, as the director of one of two hospitals still operating in the
territory's north reported bombardment nearby.

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

Israel has faced growing criticism of its actions during the war, triggered
by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, including from rights groups accusing it
of "acts of genocide" which the Israeli government strongly denies.

Pope Francis denounced on Sunday the "cruelty" of Israel's bombardment,
highlighting the deaths of children and attacks on schools and hospitals in
Gaza for the second time in as many days, while Israel accused the pontiff of
"double standards".

On the ground in Gaza, civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 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.

An AFP photographer saw residents searching through the debris for survivors,
while others looked for belongings they could salvage.

In a nearby compound, bodies covered in blankets were laid on the ground.

"We are... losing loved ones every day," said Deir el-Balah resident Naim al-
Ramlawi.

"I pray to God that a truce will be reached soon" and would allow Gazans to
finally "live a decent life, instead of this miserable life", he said.

There was no 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 a Hamas "command and control centre" inside the school compound in
the city's east.

- 'Significant risk' at hospital -

AFP impages showed the damaged school building where mangled concrete slabs
and iron beams lay strewn amid patches of blood.

Bassal said in a statement that 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, the spokesman added.

An Israeli security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the
hit on the car.

A military spokesperson said the army was unable to comment on the other
strikes reported by the civil defence.

Meanwhile a hospital director in northern Gaza said Israeli forces were
bombing buildings near the facility.

Hossam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, said in a statement that
the facility's generators were hit and that "the army is attempting to target
the fuel tank, which is full of fuel and poses a significant fire risk."

Contacted by AFP, the military said it was unaware of any strikes on the
hospital, one of only two still operating in northern Gaza.

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 45,259 people, a
majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run
territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

- Ceasefire talks -

Hamas and two other Palestinian armed groups said in a rare joint statement
on Saturday that an agreement to end the bloodshed was "closer than ever",
after Qatari-hosted talks that followed months of stalled negotiations.

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
may be within reach, provided Israel does not impose new conditions in
negotiations.

Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since a one-week truce in
November 2023, with the primary point of contention being the establishment
of a lasting ceasefire. Another unresolved issue is the territory's post-war
governance.

In the Vatican City, Pope Francis renewed on Sunday his condemnation of
Israel's attacks, a day after decrying their "cruelty".

"With pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being
machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals," the pope said
after his weekly Angelus prayer.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman hit back at Francis's initial comments
on Saturday, saying they were "particularly disappointing" and showed "double
standards", singling out Israel for criticism.