By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Center East envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday following his go to to Doha, an Israeli official mentioned, amid efforts to safe a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza.
A second Israeli official mentioned some progress had been made within the oblique talks between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the USA, to achieve a deal in Gaza.
The mediators are making new efforts to achieve a deal to halt the preventing within the enclave and free the remaining Israeli hostages held there earlier than Trump takes workplace on Jan. 20.
Witkoff arrived in Doha on Friday and met the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, based on a press release launched by Qatar’s overseas ministry.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators obtained reassurances from Witkoff that the U.S. would proceed to work in direction of a good deal to finish the battle quickly, Egyptian safety sources mentioned, although he didn’t give any particulars.
On Saturday, the Palestinian civil emergency service mentioned eight folks had been killed, together with two ladies and two youngsters, in an Israeli airstrike on a former college sheltering displaced households in Jabalia, within the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army mentioned the strike had focused Hamas militants who had been working on the college and that it had taken measures to scale back the chance of hurt to civilians.
In a while Saturday, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service mentioned 5 folks had been killed and a number of other others had been wounded in two Israeli strikes. One of many two strikes killed three folks in a home close to the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza Metropolis.
The Israeli army mentioned it struck a Hamas militant “in that space” at that approximate time.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed throughout its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 folks and taking greater than 250 hostages, based on Israeli tallies.
Since then, greater than 46,000 folks have been killed in Gaza, based on Palestinian well being officers, with a lot of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian disaster, with most of its inhabitants displaced.
