Deir Al-Balah, Jul 9 (AP) Israeli airstrikes killed at least 40 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including 10 members of a family sheltering in a tent, hospital officials said Wednesday. The strikes came as US President Donald Trump pushed for a ceasefire that might end the war and free dozens of Israeli hostages.Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the second time in two days at the White House on Tuesday evening, but there was no sign of a breakthrough.Netanyahu has vowed to continue the 21-month war until Hamas is destroyed, while the militant group has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis said the dead included 17 women and 10 children. The war has gutted Gaza’s health system, with several hospitals taken out of service and leading physicians killed in Israeli strikes.The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 targets across Gaza over the past day, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, missile launchers and tunnels. Israel accuses Hamas of hiding weapons and fighters among civilians.I found all my children dead On Wednesday, crowds of people bid farewell to the 10 members of the Shaaban family killed in an Israeli strike while they were inside their tent in Khan Younis.“I found all my children dead, and my daughters’ three children dead,” said Um Mohammad Shaaban, a nickname that means Mohammad Shaaban’s mother. “It’s supposed to be a safe area where we were.” She said that strikes have intensified even as hope for a ceasefire has risen. “The hospital last night was jam-packed,” she said.As she wept over the bodies of her three grandchildren, others holding the bodies struggled to let go before they were sent to burial.Palestinians are struggling to secure food and water Palestinians are desperate for an end to the war that has killed tens of thousands, destroyed vast areas and displaced around 90 per cent of the territory’s population.Aid groups say Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order have made it extremely difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance, leading to widespread hunger and fears of famine.In the sprawling coastal Muwasi area, where hundreds of thousands of people live in tents after being displaced from their homes, Abeer al-Najjar said she had struggled during the constant bombardments to get food and water for her family.“I pray to God that there would be a pause, and not just a pause where they would lie to us,” she said, referring to an earlier ceasefire that Israel ended in March. “We want a full ceasefire.” Her husband, Ali al-Najjar, said life has been especially tough in the summer, with little access to drinking water. “We hope this would be the end of our suffering and we can rebuild our country again,” he said, before running through a crowd with two buckets to fill them from a water truck.People chased the vehicle as it drove away to another location.Amani Abu-Omar said the water truck comes every four days, not enough for her dehydrated children. She said the summer heat and harsh conditions have caused skin rashes.“We had expected ceasefires on many occasions, but it was for nothing,” she said.The war started after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been released in earlier ceasefires. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The United Nations and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.Trump says we’re close’ to a ceasefire and hostage deal Netanyahu told reporters on Tuesday that he and Trump see “eye to eye” on the need to destroy Hamas and that coordination between Israel and the United States has never been better.Later this week, Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to head to the Qatari capital of Doha to continue indirect negotiations with Hamas on the ceasefire proposal.Witkoff and other senior administration officials met with Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer as well as Qatari officials at the White House on Tuesday to discuss sticking points in the talks, including Israel’s desire to maintain a military presence in Gaza during a potential 60-day truce, according to a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.Asked about the meeting, Trump did not confirm that “secret” talks had happened, but said if they did, he hoped the engagement “gets us to where we want to be.” “We want to have peace. We want to get the hostages back. And I think we’re close to doing it,” Trump added. (AP)
