At least seven killed in Israeli airstrike in central Gaza

Two children and a woman were among those who died in the attack on Berka Street in Deir al-Balah, according to Al-Aqsa Hospital.

An Israeli airstrike has killed at least seven people walking down a busy street in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
More than 20 others were severely wounded in the attack and footage showed injured patients being treated on the floor at the Al-Aqsa Hospital.
The attack followed two strikes earlier in the day – one on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City, which killed at least ten people, and another on Bureij refugee camp, killing a mother and five children.
“I don’t know where we need to go. They struck our homes. They struck mosques. They struck streets. They struck homes. I don’t know where to go…for shelter with the small children,” said Um Khalil Abu Agwa, a displaced Palestinian woman sheltering at the school.
It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with right-wing groups of families of fallen soldiers and hostages in Gaza.
During the meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel is “approaching victory” in its war in Gaza, noting the deaths of Hamas leader Mohammed Deif and other Hamas commanders.
“We are making an effort to return the hostages, under conditions that will allow the maximum number of hostages to be released in the first stage of the deal. I say this clearly – this is a goal I set. But the other thing is to preserve our strategic security assets in the face of great pressures from home and abroad, and we stand by that,” Netanyahu told the families.
Netanyahu’s meeting with the families came as Israel’s military said it recovered the bodies of six hostages in an overnight operation in Gaza, bringing fresh grief for many Israelis who have long pressed Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire that would bring remaining hostages home.
The IDF identified the victims as Yagov Buchstab, Alexander Dancig, Avraham Monder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Poplowel, and Haim Peri, but did not comment on how or when the hostages might have died.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in the Qatar capital of Doha.
His arrival in the Middle Eastern country follows his meetings in Egypt, where he held further ceasefire talks with mediators.
It also follows his visit to Israel, during which he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and said the prime minister had accepted a US proposal to bridge gaps separating Israel and Hamas.
Hamas, on the other hand, has said in a statement that the latest proposal is a “reversal” of what it agreed to previously, and accused the U.S. of acquiescing to what it called “new conditions” from Israel.