At least 35 Palestinians have been killed in multiple Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn, as senior negotiators prepare to restart stalled ceasefire talks.
Israeli forces killed at least 19 people in central Gaza on Friday, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Bala in central Gaza, said Friday would be “another bloody day” in the 24 hours after 34 Israeli airstrikes killed at least 71 Palestinians. He said it would happen. Gaza Strip government media office.
Abu Azzoum said the shooting in Deir el-Balah suggests “a possible military advance by Israeli ground forces” in response to Hamas attacks on Israeli tanks in the area. said.
Israeli warplanes destroyed buildings in the center of the Strip and killed journalist Omar al-Dirawi at his home in Azzawada. This is the second journalist killed in 24 hours.
On Thursday, photographer Hassan al-Qishaoui was confirmed dead in an Israeli attack.
After the deaths, the Gaza government press office revised the number of journalists killed in the area since the start of the nearly 15-month war to 202.
Meanwhile, Israel launched a new military offensive north of Gaza, and Abu Azzoum reported that Israeli forces ordered the immediate evacuation of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya.
Israelis woke early Friday morning to air raid sirens blaring across Jerusalem and central Israel as troops intercepted missiles fired from Yemen.
Ceasefire talks resume
Ceasefire talks were expected to resume on Friday as attacks continued.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had authorized the Mossad intelligence agency, Shin Bet’s internal security service and military representatives to continue negotiations in Qatar.
Sami al-Arian, director of the Center for Islamic and International Studies at Istanbul’s Zaim University, said Hamas was willing to back off one of its core demands: the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.
“There was a lot of pressure from the mediators, especially the Qataris and the Egyptians, to be flexible on these terms,” he told Al Jazeera.
“They assured the insurgent Hamas and other groups that Israel would eventually withdraw,” he said.
But Tel Aviv-based political analyst Ori Goldberg told Al Jazeera there was no reason for optimism that a ceasefire would be agreed at the talks in the absence of significant international pressure on both sides.
“As far as I know, Hamas is interested in the deal, but not excessively. “As Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, Hamas’s recruitment rate is increasing,” he said.
“Certainly the Israeli public is interested in a deal. (But) the Israeli government? Not much. “The war serves its interests,” he said.
The main mediators – Qatar, Egypt and the United States – have been trying to hammer out a lasting deal through indirect talks for months.
The death toll in the first three days of 2025 brings the death toll in Gaza to nearly 46,000 since Israel began its war there on Oct. 7, 2023, following a Hamas-led attack.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced 2.3 million people, about 90% of Gaza’s population. Many of them have been displaced on multiple occasions.
Hamas-led forces killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 captive in Israel in an attack on October 7, 2023.
About 100 prisoners remain in Gaza, but at least a third of them are believed to be dead.
