GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Jan 4, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Rescuers in 
Gaza said on Saturday that Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory 
killed at least 26 people, the day after Hamas militants said peace talks 
were to resume.

The civil defence agency said a dawn air strike on the home of the al-Ghoula 
family in Gaza City killed 11 people, seven of them children.

AFP images from the Gaza City area neighbourhood of Shujaiya showed residents 
combing through smoking rubble. Bodies including those of small children were 
lined up on the ground, shrouded in white sheets.

Late on Friday Hamas had said indirect negotiations with Israel were to 
resume in Qatar that same night for a truce and hostage release deal. There 
has since been no update.

The militant group, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza 
war, said talks would "focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete 
cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces".

Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of 
effort that have failed to end nearly 15 months of war.

A key obstacle to a deal has been Israel's reluctance to agree to a lasting 
ceasefire.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had 
authorised Israeli negotiators to continue talks in Doha.

In December, Qatar expressed optimism that "momentum" was returning to the 
talks following the US election of Donald Trump, who takes office in 16 days.

But Hamas and Israel then accused each other of setting new conditions and 
obstacles.

On January 1, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned of even more 
intense retaliatory strikes if rocket fire continued from Gaza and militants 
did not release hostages they still hold.

Such rocket launches had become rare but have intensified since late December 
as Israel presses a three-month offensive in the north of the territory.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the Ghoula home in Gaza City "was 
completely destroyed".

"It was a two-storey building and several people are still under the rubble," 
he said, adding Israeli drones had "also fired on ambulance staff".

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army did not immediately comment on the strike.

- 'Everything was shaking' -

"A huge explosion woke us up. Everything was shaking," said neighbour Ahmed 
Mussa.

"It was home to children, women. There wasn't anyone wanted or who posed a 
threat."

Elsewhere, the civil defence agency said an Israeli strike killed five 
security officers tasked with accompanying aid convoys as they drove through 
the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Bassal accused Israel of having "deliberately targeted" them to "affect the 
humanitarian supply chain and increase the suffering" of the population.

The army has not yet responded to the accusation.

United Nations rights experts said on Monday that the north Gaza "siege" 
appears to be part of an effort "to permanently displace the local population 
as a precursor to Gaza's annexation".

Rescuers said strikes elsewhere in Gaza killed 10 other people, including a 
child and two other members of the same family, when their house was bombed 
in Khan Yunis.

AFP images showed Palestine Red Crescent paramedics in Gaza City moving the 
body of one of their colleagues, his green jacket laid over the blanket that 
covered his corpse.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said a total of 136 people had been 
killed over the previous 48 hours.

The Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 
people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official 
figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,717 people in 
Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Gaza 
health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Militants also seized 251 hostages. A total of 96 remain in Gaza, including 
34 the Israeli military says are dead.