Key Points
- Hamas and Israel have confirmed that ceasefire negotiations have resumed and are continuing in Qatar.
- It comes as a fresh wave of Israeli strikes kills dozens in Gaza, according to the health ministry.
- Hamas have released footage of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza.
An Israeli military strike has killed 12 people in a house in Gaza City, bringing the death toll from strikes across the Gaza Strip to 65 over the last day, Palestinian medics say, as mediators launched a new ceasefire push in Qatar.
Residents and medics said at least 14 people had been in the house of the al-Ghoula family when the strike took place in the early hours of Saturday, destroying the building.
People scoured the rubble for possible survivors trapped under the debris, and medics said several children were among those killed.
"At about 2am we were woken up by the sound of a huge explosion," said Ahmed Ayyan, a neighbour of the al-Ghoula family, adding that 14 or 15 people had been staying in the house.
"Most of them are women and children, they are all civilians, there is no one there who shot missiles or is from the resistance," Ayyan told the Reuters news agency.
Elsewhere, Gaza's civil defence agency said an Israeli strike killed five security officers tasked with accompanying aid convoys as they drove through the southern city of Khan Younis.
Medics walk through the aftermath of an attack near al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on Thursday. Source: AAP, ABACA / Middle East Images/PA
Civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of having "deliberately targeted" them to "affect the humanitarian supply chain and increase the suffering" of the population.
The Israeli army said the five had been "implicated in terrorist activities" and were not escorting aid trucks at the time of the strike.
Rescuers said strikes elsewhere in Gaza killed 10 other people.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said more than 130 people had been killed over a 48-hour period.
Ceasefire negotiations pick up
Late on Friday, Hamas had said indirect negotiations with Israel were to resume in Qatar that same night for a truce and hostage release deal.
The militant group, whose October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war, said talks would "focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces".
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has since confirmed that indirect negotiations have resumed in Qatar, saying a delegation had left on Friday and that "efforts are underway to free the hostages" taken by Hamas in its October 7 attack on Israel.
Katz said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had given "detailed instructions for the continued negotiations".
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 Israel's reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.
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 Israel then accused each other of setting new conditions and obstacles.
On 1 January, Katz warned of even more intense retaliatory strikes if rocket fire continued from Gaza and militants did not release hostages they still held.
Such rocket launches had become rare but have intensified since late December as Israel presses a three-month offensive in the north of the territory.
Biden administration pushing for arms sale to Israel
In the United States, as the clock ticks down to the handover of power in Washington, the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden notified Congress of a US$8 billion ($12.8 billion) arms sale to Israel, a source familiar with the plan said on Saturday.
"The department has informally notified Congress of an $8 billion proposed sale of munitions to support Israel's long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defence capabilities," the official said.
The United States is Israel's largest military supplier. The country approved a separate sale of $20 billion in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel in August.
Some 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel in 2023, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
Hamas releases video of Israeli hostage
The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, released a video on Saturday of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since its October 2023 attack.
In the undated, three-and-a-half-minute video recording, a woman who has since been identified as an Israeli soldier urges Israel to do more to secure the hostages' release, saying her life and that of other captives were in danger because of the ongoing Israeli military action in the Gaza Strip.
In response, her family issued an appeal to Netanyahu, saying: "It's time to take decisions as if it were your own children there."
The families of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas have repeatedly called on the Israeli government to do more to reach a ceasefire and secure their loved ones' release. Source: AAP, EPA / Abir Sultan
Hamas militants seized more than 250 hostages during the 2023 attack, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the latest video was "firm and incontestable proof of the urgency of bringing the hostages home".
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