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CAIRO – An Israeli strike killed at least seven Palestinians including two women in Gaza on Saturday, health officials said, as mediators restarted talks in Cairo with Hamas and other factions over safeguarding a strained ceasefire agreement.
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Medics said seven people were killed and 15 others, including children, were wounded when an Israeli airstrike targeted a large tent encampment in the heart of Gaza City.
An Israeli military spokesperson told Reuters the military had carried out a strike targeting “terrorists”, but provided no further details.
A ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump has failed to halt Israeli attacks and left Israel in control of more than half the enclave after the war began with Palestinian group Hamas’ attacks on southern Israel in October 2023.
Indirect talks on a second phase of the deal – including Hamas disarmament and Israeli troop withdrawals – have stalled.
On Saturday, Egypt began hosting a new round of truce talks with leaders from Hamas and other Palestinian factions expected to last for a few days, Hamas and other sources close to the negotiation said.
Hazem Qassem, a Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, said the talks would focus on Israel’s implementation of the first phase, and reaching common ground on proceeding toward the second phase.
Hamas told mediators, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and envoys of Trump’s Board of Peace that ending Israeli attacks in Gaza was essential for any progress, sources from the group and officials close to the talks said.
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Hamas wants Israel to end attacks, allow more aid into Gaza and withdraw to ceasefire lines.
Some 950 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the truce began, according to figures from Gaza health officials. Hamas rarely provides detail on deaths among its fighters.
Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants over the same period, Israel’s military has said.
Israel says its strikes aim to thwart imminent attacks and that it allows aid and goods into Gaza.
Nearly 73,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the war started, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 Israeli and foreign hostages in its October 7, 2023, attacks, Israel has said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo. Additional reporting by Alex Cornwell in Jerusalem; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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