Baby among latest killed in strikes on Gaza as Israeli protesters demand ceasefire

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid calls on PM Netanyahu to 'go yourself' to Cairo for negotiations

A Palestinian man inspects the damage after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Hamad City in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on August 24. EPA /

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Eight people, including an eight-month-old baby, were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes and shelling on Gaza, Palestinian media reported on Sunday, despite escalating calls for a ceasefire in the ravaged enclave.

The infant and her mother were killed in shelling on Al Bureij refugee camp, medical sources at Al Awda Hospital told the official Wafa news agency. Six others were killed in an attack on a home in Deir Al Balah, Wafa added, with several more injured. Shelling was also reported in eastern parts of Khan Younis.

More than 40,400 people have been killed across Gaza since war began in October, according to the enclave's health ministry. At least 93,400 others have been wounded and several thousand are missing. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage during the Hamas attack of October 7.

The latest strikes came as dozens of bodies and human remains were recovered from Khan Younis following the withdrawal of the Israeli army.

“Great destruction” was reported in Hamad City, an area of Khan Younis, where dozens of buildings were “razed to the ground”, according to Wafa. Dozens of bodies and severed limbs were found on Saturday and sent to Nasser Hospital, it added, as search operations continue to locate the missing. At least 60 bodies were transferred to the hospital from Thursday to Saturday, Wafa added, with 11 others killed across Gaza on Saturday.

Nasser Hospital was overwhelmed with the dead and wounded, but there was a small sign of progress on Sunday at the nearby European Hospital, which reopened 50 days after being forced out of service.

The facility is "returning to serve patients and visitors, despite the scarcity of resources and the difficulty of operations", the health ministry said in a statement.

The main surgical department will be open around the clock, in addition to the paediatric and internal medicine department, it added.

Patients were forced to flee the hospital after Israeli forces issued an evacuation order in July.

Many were pushed 10 kilometres to Nasser Hospital in their beds, while others were forced to walk, Doctors Without Borders said at the time.

Israeli forces, which withdrew from northern Khan Younis, are now stationed in the east of the city, according to Wafa.

As the war continues, so do large-scale protests calling for a ceasefire deal and an end to the fighting. Thousands of Israelis rallied again in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday, with demands for a ceasefire louder after the bodies of six hostages were recovered from Gaza last week. Several relatives of the recovered hostages spoke at a Tel Aviv rally under the banner You Could Have Saved Them, according to Israeli reports.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid was present, wearing a Bring Them Home Now shirt. He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “go himself” to Cairo, where ceasefire talks are set to resume.

“Mr Prime Minister: go to Cairo yourself, don’t send anybody. Close a deal now,” the Times of Israel quoted him as saying at the rally.

About 100 hostages remain in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. In November, 105 were released in a temporary ceasefire that also involved the release of Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons. Only a few have been freed in military operations in Gaza, which are estimated to have killed hundreds of Palestinians.

It is unclear how many of the hostages are still alive.

On Saturday, a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to hear from mediators Egypt and Qatar on the latest round of ceasefire negotiations, sources told The National. The Hamas delegates would hold talks with Egyptian officials and engage in indirect negotiations with US and Israeli officials beginning Sunday.

The arrival of the Hamas delegation signals a formal end of the Palestinian group's boycott of Gaza ceasefire talks following the assassination in Tehran in late July of its leader Ismail Haniyeh. Hamas spokesman Izzat Al Rishq said the team, led by senior official Khalil Al Hayya, was travelling at the invitation of the mediators in Egypt and Qatar.

He added that Hamas was ready to implement the terms agreed upon on July 2, based on a declaration from US President Joe Biden and a UN Security Council resolution.

The sources said Hamas had emphasised before the arrival of its delegation that it remained committed to longstanding demands for Israel to fully withdraw from Gaza and for a permanent ceasefire.

Separately, the Egyptians are considering the latest proposal from Israel, on the issue of Israeli troop presence on the Palestinian side of the land crossing between Egypt and Gaza – and a strip of land that runs the length of the Egypt-Gaza border.

Both areas were captured by Israel in May, a move that deeply angered Cairo and significantly heightened tensions between the two neighbouring nations.

The latest Israeli proposal, according to the sources, is for the bulk of Israeli forces in the border strip Salah Adin (Philadelphi) corridor to pull back by up to 1,000 metres while maintaining some troops inside the area.

Israeli delegates on Friday handed the Egyptians detailed maps of where the remaining forces would be deployed, their numbers and areas of operation, said the sources.

Those remaining troops, according to the proposal, will later withdraw and be replaced by UN peacekeepers as well as US forces that will put in place and run a monitoring regime after the construction of a wall that runs the entire length of the Egypt-Gaza border and fitted with cameras and sensors.

Israel, however, is insisting that it retains the right for its military to return to the area in the case of a perceived security threat. Israel has long charged that arms and dual-use materials were reaching Hamas through underground tunnels running between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt has rejected the charge, claiming that its military destroyed the tunnels nearly a decade ago.

The Hamas delegation, said the sources, will also be briefed while in Cairo on a proposal for a non-partisan Palestinian administration to run the Egypt-Gaza border crossing at Rafah.