CAIRO: Zionist entity military strikes have killed at least 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave’s Health Ministry said on Sunday, as Arab and US mediators work to shore up a fragile ceasefire between the entity and Hamas. Palestinian officials say dozens of people have been killed by Zionist fire despite the January 19 truce that halted large-scale fighting in Gaza.

The entity’s military has said its forces have intervened to thwart threats by “terrorists” approaching its troops or planting bombs since the ceasefire took effect. Gaza’s Health Ministry said most of the latest deaths took place on Saturday when a Zionist entity airstrike killed nine Palestinians including four journalists in the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The entity’s military said six men that it had identified as members of the armed wings of Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad militant group had been killed in the strike. It said some of the militants had operated “under the cover of journalists”.

Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said the military’s statement about the incident included the names of people who were not present. It was based on inaccurate social media reports “without even bothering to verify the facts”, Marouf said. At least four more Palestinians were killed in separate Zionist entity strikes on Saturday, the Gaza health officials said.

A Zionist entity drone had fired a missile at a group of Palestinians in the town of Juhr Eldeek in central Gaza on Sunday, killing a 62-year-old man and wounding several others, the medics said. Several others were hurt when a Zionist drone fired a missile towards a group of people in Rafah, they added. The Zionist military said it was not familiar with the reported drone strikes.

Ceasefire talks

Persistent bloodshed in Gaza underscores the fragility of the three-stage ceasefire agreement mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States, which have stepped in to hammer out a deal between the Zionist entity and Hamas over how to proceed. The entity wants to extend the ceasefire’s first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due to begin on March 2.

Zionist entity Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue talks based on the mediators’ response to a US proposal for the release of 11 living hostages and half of the dead captives. Hamas on Friday said it had agreed to release American-Zionist soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the hostages if the entity agreed to begin talks immediately on implementing the second phase of the agreement. The entity responded by accusing Hamas of waging “psychological warfare” on the families of hostages. — Reuters