At least 34 killed in Gaza as Qatar holds hope for ceasefire

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 34 Palestinians on Saturday, health officials in the enclave said, as Qatar voiced hope of fresh momentum in efforts to reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

The health officials said that an Israeli strike hit a house in Gaza City late on Saturday, killing four women. The Israeli military did not provide an immediate comment on Saturday's strikes across Gaza.

The death toll was revised upwards from 30 reported earlier in the day by the Palestinian health ministry, which also said dozens were wounded.

The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in the daily death tallies, and Reuters could not independently verify the figures.

Israel accuses the Islamist group of using civilian population and property as shields. Hamas denies this.

Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Qatar was engaging with the incoming Trump administration on Gaza after sensing fresh momentum for ceasefire talks following the US election.

Donald Trump's Middle East envoy has travelled to Qatar and Israel to kick-start the US President-elect's diplomatic push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal before his inauguration on Jan. 20, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters on Thursday.

Hamas said on Saturday a ceasefire agreement could only be reached if it secured an end to the war in Gaza, reaffirming its outstanding position. Israel says the war can only end once Hamas is eradicated.

"Stopping the war and aggression is the condition for any agreement," said a Hamas statement, quoting a top official of the group, Mohammad Darwish.

Hamas has not appointed a new leader after Israel killed the group's chief, Yahya Al-Sinwar, in Gaza on Oct 17, but the statement described Darwish as the head of the leading council.

TALKS IN QATAR

Darwish met with Turkey's foreign minister on Friday and Iran's foreign minister on Saturday to discuss the developments in Gaza and the region, the statement said.

Both meetings were held in Doha, Qatar, which announced earlier on Saturday that officials were trying to revive the ceasefire talks.

"He (Darwish) explained that Hamas was open to offers by the mediators as long as they served the interest of our people and ending their suffering," the statement said.

The war in Gaza has been raging for over 14 months, with much of the enclave laid to waste and more than 44,000 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza health authorities, as Israeli forces continue their drive to wipe out Hamas and rescue hostages taken by the fighter group.

The deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades began when Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct.7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza.

In the occupied West Bank on Saturday, a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces at a checkpoint, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Police said a security guard had shot him after he threw firecrackers at the forces there and that a knife was found on his person.

The Israeli military said that on Friday it killed several Hamas fighters who were identified as operating from a structure in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, according to a statement issued on Saturday.