GAZA: Rescuers in Gaza said on Saturday that Zionist entity strikes across the Palestinian territory killed at least 31 people, the day after Hamas said peace talks were to resume. The civil defense agency said a dawn air strike on the home of the Al-Ghoula family in Gaza City killed 11 people, seven of them children. Zionist military strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 70 people over the last day, with a total of 136 people killed over the previous 48 hours. Meanwhile, the administration of US President Joe Biden has notified Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale to the Zionist entity, a source familiar with the plan said on Saturday.

AFP images from the Gaza City area neighborhood of Shujaiya showed residents combing through smoking rubble. Bodies including those of small children were lined up on the ground, shrouded in white sheets. Late on Friday Hamas had said indirect negotiations with Zionist entity were to resume in Qatar that same night for a truce and hostage release deal. There has since been no update.

Meanwhile, the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, released a video on Saturday of a Zionist hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack. In the undated, three-and-half-minute video recording that AFP has not been able to verify, 19-year-old soldier Liri Albag called in Hebrew for the Zionist government to secure her release. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group for relatives of those abducted, said Albag’s family has not authorized publication of the video.

The conscript was 18 when she was captured by Palestinian militants at the Nahal Oz base on the Gaza border. The Hamas seized 251 hostages during the 2023 attack, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Zionist military says 34 of those are dead.

Meanwhile, mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of effort that have failed to end nearly 15 months of war. A key obstacle to a deal has been Zionist entity’s reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire. On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had authorized Zionist negotiators to continue talks in Doha.

In December, Qatar expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following the US election of Donald Trump, who takes office in 16 days. But Hamas and Zionist entity then accused each other of setting new conditions and obstacles.

On January 1, Zionist Defense Minister Israel Katz warned of even more intense retaliatory strikes if rocket fire continued from Gaza and militants did not release hostages they still hold. Such rocket launches had become rare but have intensified since late December as Zionist entity presses a three-month offensive in the north of the territory. Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the Ghoula home in Gaza City “was completely destroyed”.

“It was a two-storey building and several people are still under the rubble,” he said, adding Zionist drones had “also fired on ambulance staff”. Contacted by AFP, the Zionist army did not immediately comment on the strike.

“A huge explosion woke us up. Everything was shaking,” said neighbor Ahmed Mussa. “It was home to children, women. There wasn’t anyone wanted or who posed a threat.” Elsewhere, the civil defense agency said a Zionist strike killed five security officers tasked with accompanying aid convoys as they drove through the southern city of Khan Yunis. Bassal accused Zionists of having “deliberately targeted” them to “affect the humanitarian supply chain and increase the suffering” of the population.

The army has not yet responded to the accusation. United Nations rights experts said on Monday that the north Gaza “siege” appears to be part of an effort “to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza’s annexation”.

Rescuers said strikes elsewhere in Gaza killed 10 other people, including a child and two other members of the same family, when their house was bombed in Khan Yunis. AFP images showed Palestine Red Crescent paramedics in Gaza City moving the body of one of their colleagues, his green jacket laid over the blanket that covered his corpse.

The administration of Biden has notified Congress of a proposed $8 billion arms sale to Zionist entity, a US official said on Friday, with Washington maintaining support for its ally whose war in Gaza has killed tens of thousands. The deal would need approval from the House of Representatives and Senate committees and includes munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters as well as artillery shells, Axios reported earlier. The package also includes small-diameter bombs and warheads, according to Axios. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Protesters have for months demanded an arms embargo against Zionists, but US policy has largely remained unchanged. In August, the United States approved the sale of $20 billion in fighter jets and other military equipment to Zionist entity. The Biden administration says it is helping its ally defend against Iran-backed militant groups like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Facing international criticism, Washington has stood by Zionist entity during its assault on Gaza that has displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide accusations against Zionist entity. The Gaza health ministry puts the death toll at over 45,000 people, with many additional feared buried under rubble. Diplomatic efforts have so far failed to end the 15-month-old Zionist war in Gaza. – Agencies