Amid reports that a Gaza ceasefire deal is advancing, Israeli strikes continued to pound the Strip on Tuesday, killing at least 63 Palestinians since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera early Wednesday morning.
Among the dead were two children killed by an Israeli attack while sheltering in a tent in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Sources told Al Jazeera that a total of 28 Palestinians were killed in central and southern Gaza.
Israeli strikes also hit northern Gaza, killing several Palestinians in Gaza City, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. An Israeli attack on a gathering of civilians in the al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, killed at least two.
On Tuesday night, an Israeli strike on a building sheltering displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah killed at least 13 Palestinians.
Hani Mahmoud, an Al Jazeera reporter in central Gaza, said there was cautious optimism among Palestinians over the reports of a ceasefire deal being close. “Everybody’s anxious and waiting, but there are still people who keep saying that they have been let down so many times in the past,” he said.
“There is still caution surrounding their optimism, given that there was no ceasefire deal in the past. They remember when they were told the last time there were talks in Cairo, the Israeli military invaded the northern part of the Gaza Strip,” Mahmoud added.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its daily update, which it releases about mid-day Gaza time, that Israeli strikes killed at least 61 Palestinians and wounded 281 over the past 24 hours, a total that includes casualties from Monday.
The Health Ministry’s numbers only account for dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues. “There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the streets, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.
A new study published in The Lancet found the Health Ministry’s numbers were a significant undercount, likely by 41%. The study said that as of October 2024, the true death toll was likely over 70,000, which only accounts for violent deaths, not indirect deaths caused by the US-backed Israeli siege.
