CAIRO – Israeli military strikes killed at least 36 Palestinians across Gaza on Oct 27, as efforts to secure a ceasefire in the more than year-long war resumed in Qatar.

       The directors of the US Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency were set to meet the Qatari Prime Minister on Oct 27 in Doha.

       The negotiations will seek a short-term ceasefire and the release of some hostages being held by Hamas in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners.

       The talks aim to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a halt in fighting for less than a month in the hope that it would lead to a more permanent ceasefire.

       At least 34 of those killed on Oct 27 were in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have returned to root out Hamas fighters who it says have regrouped there.

       Twenty people were killed following an air strike on houses in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps.

       It has been the focus of an Israeli military offensive for more than three weeks, medics and the Palestinian official news agency Wafa said.

       The Israeli military said in a statement it has “eliminated over 40 terrorists” in the Jabalia area in the past 24 hours, as well as dismantled infrastructure and located “large quantities of military equipment”.

       In addition, it said its forces eliminated a “terrorist cell” during a close-quarter encounter in central Gaza.

       The death toll from an Israeli air strike late on Oct 26 on a residential district in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya rose to 40, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

       The Israeli military said it carried out “a precise strike using precise munitions on Hamas terrorists within a structure in the area of Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip. A number of terrorists have been hit in the strike”.

       It added that the high number of casualties mentioned in media reports did not align with the type of munitions used in the precision attack.

       In the second front in Lebanon, at least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded on Oct 27 when an Israeli air strike targeted a building in Sidon city.

       The strike hit a densely populated area in a suburb that saw an influx of families displaced from areas further south.

       It was the first strike there since Israel began a full-on offensive against Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group in September.

       Israeli military strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have so far killed around 800 people during a three-week offensive, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

       Palestinian health officials said the ongoing Israeli aerial and ground offensive has crippled the healthcare system in northern Gaza and was blocking medical teams from reaching bombed sites.

       The Civil Emergency Service announced two days ago that it halted operations after the Israeli military detained and wounded several of its personnel and bombed its only fire truck.

       The war in Gaza began on Oct 27, 2023, when Hamas stormed across southern Israel, killing some 1,200 Israelis and taking about 250 hostages.

       Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza, meanwhile, has left close to 43,000 Palestinians dead. REUTERS