CAIRO: At least nine Palestinians were killed, including two local journalists, and others wounded on Saturday in a Zionist entity airstrike on Gaza’s northern Beit Lahiya town, Gaza’s health ministry said, as Hamas’ leaders hold Gaza ceasefire talks with mediators in Cairo. Several were critically injured as the strike hit a car, with casualties inside and outside the vehicle, health officials told Reuters.

Witnesses and fellow journalists said the people in the car were on a mission for a charity called Al-Khair Foundation in Beit Lahiya, and they were accompanied by journalists and photographers when the strike hit them. At least three local journalists were among the dead, according to Palestinian media.

The Zionist entity military said in a statement that it had struck two individuals that it identified as “terrorists” operating a drone that it said posed a threat to forces in Beit Lahiya. The military later struck several other suspects who it said had collected the drone equipment and entered a vehicle. The military did not say how it had determined that the individuals it had struck were “terrorists” or provide detail on the threat that the drone had posed to its soldiers.

The incident underscores the fragility of the January 19 ceasefire agreement that halted large-scale fighting in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian health officials say dozens of people have been killed by Zionist entity fire despite the truce. Commenting on the latest deaths, Hamas accused the entity in a statement of attempting to renege on the ceasefire agreement, putting the number of Palestinians killed since January 19 at 150. It urged mediators to compel the entity to move ahead with the implementation of the phased ceasefire deal, blaming the Zionist entity’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the current impasse.

Responding to some of the incidents reported by Gaza medics, the Zionist entity military says its forces have intervened to thwart threats by “terrorists” approaching its forces or planting bombs on the ground near where forces operate. Since a temporary first phase of the ceasefire expired on March 2, the Zionist entity has rejected opening the second phase of talks, which would require it to negotiate over a permanent end to the war, the main demand of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The incident coincided with a visit by Hamas’ exiled Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, to Cairo for further ceasefire talks aimed at resolving disputes with the entity that could risk a resumption of fighting in the enclave. On Friday, Hamas said it had agreed to free an American-Zionist entity dual national if Israel begins the next phase of ceasefire talks towards a permanent end to the war, an offer the entity dismissed as “psychological warfare.”

Hamas said it had made the offer to release New Jersey native Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier in the entity’s army, after receiving a proposal from mediators for negotiations on the second phase of a ceasefire deal. The entity says it wants to extend the ceasefire’s temporary first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase. — AFP