46 people killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza as ceasefire talks continue. Israel-Palestine conflict news

At least 46 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza as international mediators continue talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and a prisoner-for-prisoner exchange.

Medical sources provided Al Jazeera with the death toll in Gaza on Wednesday, as Israeli forces launched several raids in the occupied West Bank, killing three people.

According to Palestinian officials, at least 45,936 people have been killed in Gaza, while 109,274 others have been injured since Israel began the war following an attack by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in that attack, and about 250 others were taken captive, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli data.

Reporting from Deir al-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tariq Abu Azzoum said most of the Israeli attacks on Wednesday were concentrated in the north of the Gaza Strip, particularly around Gaza City.

Five people were killed in an Israeli attack on a Gaza City park, he said, and four were killed in an attack on a school sheltering displaced people in Jabaliya. In central Gaza, an attack on a family home in the Burij refugee camp killed at least 10 people, including women and children, survivors said.

“The airstrikes have intensified since the early hours of this morning,” Abu Azzoum said, adding that the Israeli attacks also wounded four telecommunications workers who were working to maintain Internet landlines in Gaza City.

“What we saw in the last few hours is a very devastating situation, especially in Gaza City, which has been the center of military attacks, especially in densely populated areas,” he said.

out of hospital service

Rawya Taboura, a nurse at the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the health facility has been subject to direct Israeli shelling “targeting the walls of the hospital and its surroundings” and preventing aid delivery.

Gaza’s health ministry said earlier this week that all three major hospitals in Gaza’s north are out of service due to fighting, with Kamal Adwan hospital director Abu Safia having been detained by Israeli forces.

“Unfortunately, so far, no one has been able to provide assistance due to the difficulty of the situation outside the hospital and the difficulty of coordination with relevant parties,” Taboura said.

“We are not able to provide support to the hospital,” he said. “The situation in the hospital is very serious.”

In the south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis announced it would cease operations at 5 pm (15:00 GMT) on Wednesday due to fuel shortages, Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah said it had no basic medical supplies. Was. And supply.

On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was among international aid groups demanding unhindered access to Gaza. Aid groups have repeatedly accused Israel of disrupting aid access.

IFRC said severe winter weather conditions in Gaza are “exacerbating the situation intolerable”, with many families “forced to survive in makeshift camps, without the most basic necessities such as blankets”.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that at least 74 children were killed in Gaza in the first week of 2025, “suffering from attacks, deprivation and increased exposure to cold”.

The figure includes eight infants and newborns who have died from hypothermia in recent days.

The agency said Gaza’s displaced people include more than one million children, many of whom are living in makeshift tents and have little protection from the elements.

‘heinous crime’

As fighting in Gaza escalates, Israeli raids continue in the occupied West Bank.

On Wednesday, the Commission for the Affairs of Detainees and Ex-Detainees and the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said 45 Palestinians had been arrested in the governorates of Hebron, Nablus, Tubas, Tulkarem, Ramallah and Jerusalem since Tuesday night.

In Bethlehem, several teachers and students were injured when Israeli troops fired tear gas at a farmers’ school east of Bethlehem, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The tear gas was reportedly a response to some students throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles.

Meanwhile, three Palestinians, including two children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Tammun in Tubas Governorate on Wednesday.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry identified the killed children as nine-year-old Rida Bisharat and 10-year-old Hamza Bisharat. It described the strike as a “heinous crime”.

The ministry further said that Israel’s “implementation of its aggressive policies in the West Bank” is “a gross violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions”.

Negotiations continue on ceasefire

As fighting continued, mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and the United States were leading efforts to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would lead to a ceasefire and the exchange of Israeli prisoners held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. Will be changed.

Speaking from Paris, France, on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a deal was “very close”.

However, previous attempts to secure the mark have repeatedly failed, with both Hamas and Israel accusing each other of reneging on the terms.

Washington has also been criticized for not exerting more influence over its “ironclad” ally Israel, to which it provides billions of dollars of military aid.

Meanwhile, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump, on Tuesday said he will travel to Doha, Qatar to attend the talks. He expressed hope that an agreement would be reached before Trump takes office on January 20.

For his part, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that “everything will be ruined” if there is no deal by the time he takes office. He declined to define what that meant, or whether it could lead to increased US involvement in the conflict.

Later on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the bodies of two detainees, Youssef and Hamza Ziadne, had been recovered in Gaza.