GAZA: Zionist forces battled Hamas-led fighters in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and Palestinian health officials said at least 57 people were killed in Zionist bombardments of southern and central areas, despite renewed US criticism of the high civilian toll. The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has accused the Zionist entity of stepping up attacks in Gaza to try to derail efforts by Arab mediators and the United States to reach a ceasefire deal.

In Rafah, a southern border city where Zionist forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a house, Gaza health officials said. In nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife, and two children were killed, they said. Later on Tuesday, a Zionist airstrike on a car killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded 26 others in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the officials said.

The airstrike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street in the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi, the health ministry said. Reuters footage showed residents carrying bodies of the dead and wounded on donkey carts and in rickshaws to hospitals. “The car was targeted, the blood was splashing, and shrapnel hit our tents and martyrs were left on the street. We screamed: ‘We need an ambulance’. We put (the casualties) on carts and rickshaws and the ambulance came after a while,” said eyewitness Tahrir Matir, who lives in a tent nearby.

In the historic Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, at least four Palestinians were killed in separate shelling and aerial strikes in central Gaza, medics said. A Zionist airstrike also killed four in Sheikh Zayed in northern Gaza, they said. Hours later, a Zionist air strike on a UN-run school that housed displaced families in the Nuseirat camp killed 23 people and wounded many others, health officials said.

Among those killed was local journalist Mohammad Meshmesh, taking the number of journalists killed in the conflict to 160, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said. “Where is the safety for (UN) agency schools? There are no more safe agency schools, or safe clinics, no more safe houses, no safe streets. We have been left desolate, displaced and destroyed,” said eyewitness Umm Omar Ahmed at Nuseirat camp.

“Why do they target us when we are innocent people?” asked Umm Mohammed Al-Hasanat, sheltering with her family at a UN-run school in Nuseirat, which was among those hit. “We do not carry weapons but are just sitting and trying to find safety for ourselves and our children.”

Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two senior Zionist officials of Washington’s “serious concern” following deadly Zionist strikes in Gaza, his spokesman said. “We have seen civilian casualties come down from the high points of the conflict... but they still remain unacceptably high,” spokesman Matthew Miller said after Blinken met Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

On Tuesday, the military claimed it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas’ military wing, with about 14,000 fighters killed or captured since the start of the war. At least 38,713 Palestinians have been killed in the Zionist offensive, Gaza health authorities said in their latest update on Tuesday.

Relatives visited Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to say farewell to relatives before funerals. “We’re exhausted... we are extremely tired, our patience is over,” said elderly Palestinian Sahar Abu Emeira. “Whether Hamas or the others (the Zionist entity) they need to agree as soon as possible.”

The Zionist military has also detained scores of Gazans, who have made allegations of torture, rape and other abuses in custody. Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mahajna said Monday that prisoners had recounted guards using “electric prods” on inmates’ bodies. In one prisoner’s case, a “fire extinguisher tube was inserted into his buttocks and the fire extinguisher was turned on,” Mahajna said after visiting detained Palestinian journalists. He said prisoners were handcuffed when they ate the meagre meals provided, while detainees reported widespread disease and untreated wounds.

Efforts to end the conflict stalled on Saturday after three days of negotiations failed to produce a viable outcome, Egyptian security sources said, and after a Zionist strike targeting Hamas’ top military chief, Mohammed Deif. That attack killed more than 90 people in the Khan Younis area, according to Gaza health authorities.

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations told Reuters Hamas was keen not to be seen as halting the talks despite the stepped-up Israeli attacks. “Hamas wants the war to end, not at any price. It says it has shown the flexibility needed and is pushing the mediators to get Israel to reciprocate,” the official said. He said Hamas believed Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to avoid a deal by adding more conditions that restrict the return of displaced people to northern Gaza, and to keep control over the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. – Agencies