Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israel strikes

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Gaza's civil defence agency said a series of Israeli air strikes killed at least 14 people on Wednesday, in the latest violence to ravage the already devastated Palestinian territory.

Five people were killed and several wounded in an air strike on the house of the Barghout family in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City, the agency said.

Three people were killed in another strike targeting the house of the Al-Banna family in the central city of Deir El Balah.

A strike in Gaza City killed five people, while a a strike on the house of the Weshah family in Al-Bureij refugee camp killed a child, it added.

An AFP journalist later observed people searching through the rubble of the house to salvage what they could.

Rescuers also recovered the bodies of three people who were killed by a drone strike in Rafah district on Tuesday.

The latest strikes came as mediators Qatar, Egypt, and the United States brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of hostages.

During their October 7, 2023 attack which sparked the war in Gaza, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 45,936 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.