JERUSALEM: An Israeli airstrike killed at least 17 people in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, as talks on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended without a breakthrough.
First responders with the Civil Defence circulated videos of rescuers pulling dead and wounded people from the rubble of a house. The nearby European Hospital said Tuesday that it had received 17 bodies overnight. Gaza’s Health Ministry says a total of 97 persons have been killed over the last 24 hours. That brought the overall Palestinian death toll from the nearly five-month war to 30,631, according to the ministry.
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames the high toll on Hamas because the militants operate in dense, residential areas. The military rarely comments on individual strikes. The military said on Tuesday that it was carrying out targeted raids on militant infrastructure in Khan Younis while trying to evacuate civilians from the area.