GAZA: Hamas and US representatives have held direct talks in Doha in recent days, two officials from the Palestinian group told AFP on Sunday, with one saying there had been "progress" towards a truce in Gaza. "Direct talks have taken place in Doha between the Hamas leadership and the United States regarding a ceasefire in Gaza, a prisoner exchange and the entry of humanitarian aid," said a senior Hamas official, adding that the talks "are still ongoing".

A second official from the Palestinian group said there was "progress made ... notably on the entry of aid to the Gaza Strip" and the potential exchange of captives for Palestinians held in Zionist prisons, "particularly concerning Edan Alexander", one of the captives, who holds US citizenship. The second official also reported progress "on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip".

Zionist air strikes on Sunday killed at least 12 people, including young children, mostly in the south of the besieged Palestinian territory. Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Zionist entity fighter jets hit three tents overnight where dozens of displaced people were sheltering in the southern city of Khan Yunis. "Eight people, including four children aged two to five and two women" were killed, Bassal said.

AFP footage showed rescuers working in the dark, evacuating a wounded baby from the site of the strike as well as two bodies, one of them in a white plastic bag and another wrapped in a blanket. A separate strike on Khan Yunis later on Sunday killed three people, Bassal said. One person was killed and three others wounded when a group of civilians came under attack in Gaza City, in the north, he added.

Bassal also said the Zionist military destroyed five houses with explosives in the east of Gaza City and fired artillery at the Abassa area east of Khan Yunis, without reporting any casualties. The Zionist entity broke a two-month truce that halted 18 months of bombardment, resuming its offensive in Gaza on March 18. The attacks have killed t least 2,720 people, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,829. — Agencies