Gaza authorities say dozens killed as Israel strikes across territory

Israeli strikes killed another 32 people in the Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory said Friday, more than nine months into Hamas's war with Israel.

Fighting raged from the north to the south of the coastal territory as talks have continued towards reaching a truce and hostage-release deal.

In a brief statement, Gaza's health ministry said "32 martyrs, a majority of them children and women, were taken to hospitals overnight, because of continued massacres" by Israeli forces.

Hamas media reported "more than 70 air strikes" in several parts of the territory. This included locations in Gaza City in the north, Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre, along with Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south, Hamas said.

Israel's military on Friday said troops are continuing operations in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.

On Thursday, around 60 bodies were found under the rubble of Gaza City's eastern Shujaiya neighbourhood, Gaza's Civil Defense agency said.

The discovery came after Israeli troops ended a two-week operation which Gaza's Civil Defense and residents said had left the area in ruins.

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 85 percent of buildings are now uninhabitable and Shujaiya has been left a "disaster zone".

On Wednesday Israel's army called on all of Gaza City's residents to, for their safety, leave the area which they called "a dangerous combat zone".

The United Nations informed that up to 350,000 people had been staying in the city, and said the latest evacuations "will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times", and who face "critical levels of need".

'Difficult, complex issues'

The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement in the eastern district of Shujaiya came as talks were held in mediator Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal.

U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters that his administration was "making progress" towards a ceasefire agreement as he called for an end to the Israel-Hamas war.

His statement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed that its negotiating team, led by Mossad intelligence chief David Barnea, had returned to Israel following talks with mediators in Doha on Thursday.

Speaking after the team's return, Netanyahu said Israel needed control of the Palestinian side of Gaza's border with Egypt to stop weapons reaching Hamas.

He added that Israel must also be allowed to keep on fighting until its war aims of destroying Hamas and bringing home all hostages are achieved.

In Washington, Biden acknowledged "difficult, complex issues" remain between Israel and Hamas, but that progress was being made in reaching a ceasefire deal.

"There's a lot of things in retrospect I wish I had been able to convince the Israelis to do, but the bottom line is we have a chance now. It's time to end this war," he said after a NATO summit.

The Washington Post had reported on Wednesday that both Israel and Hamas had "signalled their acceptance of an 'interim governance' plan" in which neither would rule the territory and a U.S.-trained force of Palestinian Authority supporters would provide security.

The Pentagon has also announced it will soon permanently end its problem-plagued effort to deliver aid to Gaza by sea from Cyprus using a temporary pier that had been repeatedly damaged by weather conditions.

The U.N.'s health agency meanwhile said that only five trucks carrying medical supplies were allowed into Gaza last week.

"More than 34 of our trucks are waiting at the Al Arish crossing, and 850 pallets of medical supplies are awaiting collection. A further 40 trucks are waiting at Ismailiya in Egypt," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday on social media platform X.

Israel launched its war on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,190 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

Hamas seized 251 hostages. Of these 116 remain in Gaza, although the army says 42 of them are dead.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 38,340 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.