ISRAELI air strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 20 people including children in a humanitarian zone, Palestinian medics said.
One of the strikes hit a tent camp in the Muwasi area, an Israel-declared humanitarian zone, killing eight people, including two children, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, which received the bodies.
The Israeli military claims to only target militants, accusing them of hiding among civilians. It said late on Sunday that it had targeted a Hamas militant in the humanitarian zone.
Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC), said on Monday there is “some progress” in efforts to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza. He did not give a timeframe for a possible agreement.
Of the roughly 250 people who were taken hostage in the Hamas-led raid on Israel on October 7 2023, around 100 are still inside the Gaza Strip, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead, reports say.
Speaking in the Knesset, Netanyahu said: "We are taking significant actions through all channels to return our loved ones. I would like to tell you cautiously that there is some progress."
Netanyahu said he could not reveal details of what was being done to secure the return of hostages.
He said the main reasons for the progress were the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Israel’s military actions against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who had been firing rockets into Israel from neighbouring Lebanon in support of Hamas.
“Hamas hoped that Iran and Hezbollah would come to its aid but they are busy licking the wounds from the blows we inflicted on them,” he said, adding that Israel was also putting “relentless military pressure” on Hamas in Gaza.
Elsewhere, Palestinians in the volatile northern West Bank town of Jenin are observing a general strike called by militant groups to protest against a rare crackdown by Palestinian security forces.
An Associated Press reporter in Jenin heard gunfire and explosions, apparently from clashes between militants and Palestinian security forces. It was not immediately clear if anyone was killed or injured. There was no sign of Israeli troops in the area.
Shops were closed in the city on Monday, the day after militants killed a member of the Palestinian security forces and wounded two others.
Militant groups called for a general strike across the territory, accusing the security forces of trying to disarm them in support of Israel’s half-century occupation of the territory.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority is internationally recognised but deeply unpopular among Palestinians, in part because it cooperates with Israel on security matters. Israel accuses the authority of incitement and of failing to act against armed groups.
The Palestinian Authority blamed Sunday’s attack on “outlaws”. It says it is committed to maintaining law and order but will not police the occupation.
The Palestinian Authority exercises limited authority in population centres in the West Bank. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Middle East War, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.
Israel’s current government is opposed to Palestinian statehood and says it will maintain open-ended security control over the territory. Violence has soared in the West Bank following Hamas’ October 7 attack out of Gaza in 2023.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The ministry says women and children make up more than half the dead but does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.
The military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
