CAIRO (Dispatches) -- At least nine Palestinians were killed, including two local journalists, and others wounded on Saturday in an Israeli 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 incident underscores the fragility of the January 19 ceasefire agreement that halted large-scale Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian health officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the truce.
Commenting on the latest deaths, the Hamas movement said in a statement Israel is attempting to renege on the ceasefire agreement, putting the number of Palestinians killed since January 19 at 150.
It urged mediators to compel the Zionist regime to move ahead with the implementation of the phased ceasefire deal, blaming Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the current impasse.
Since a temporary first phase of the ceasefire expired on March 2, Israel 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 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 Israel that could risk a resumption of fighting in the enclave.
On Friday, Hamas said it had agreed to free an American-Israeli dual national if the occupying regime begins the next phase of ceasefire talks towards a permanent end to the war.
Hamas said it had made the offer to release New Jersey native Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army, after receiving a proposal from mediators for negotiations on the second phase of a ceasefire deal.
Israel says it wants to extend the ceasefire’s temporary first phase, a proposal backed by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing captives only under the second phase.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza has martyred more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and reduced much of the territory to rubble and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.