The Israeli bombardment in Gaza continued unabated, with the Palestinian Red Crescent saying Sunday that the bodies of six people, including two children, who were killed in Israeli strikes had arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

Paramedics also said Sunday that six people had been killed in an Israeli strike on a house in a northern area of Gaza City.

The day before, the health ministry in Gaza said 16 people had been killed in an Israeli strike on a school run by the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) that was sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.

The Israeli occupation army earlier said it had conducted attacks across much of the Gaza Strip, including Shujaiya in the north, Deir al-Balah and Rafah in the south.

The Gaza press office and paramedics said four journalists working for local media outlets were killed in strikes overnight into Saturday, and UNRWA said two of its employees had been killed.

UNRWA, which coordinates much of the aid delivered to Gaza, says Israel killed 194 of its employees.

Israel has so far killed 38,098 Palestinians, mostly children amd women, since it started its war on Gaza on October 7. The toll includes 87,705 wounded people. Thousands remain trapped under rubble and in the streets, inaccessible to ambulance and civil defense crews.

 'Ball in Israel's court' 

Israel has said it will send a delegation in the coming days to continue truce talks with Qatari mediators that began recently in Doha.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman said "gaps" remained with Hamas on how to secure a ceasefire and captives release deal.

"It was agreed that next week Israeli negotiators will travel to Doha to continue the talks. There are still gaps between the parties," the spokesman said in a statement on Friday.

The United States, which has mediated ceasefire negotiations alongside Qatar and Egypt, has talked up the prospects of a deal, saying there is a "pretty significant opening" for both sides.

US President Joe Biden announced a pathway to a truce deal in May that he said had been proposed by Israel.

It included an initial six-week truce, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza's population centers, and the freeing of Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Talks subsequently stalled, but a US official said Thursday that a new proposal from Hamas "moves the process forward and may provide the basis for closing the deal".

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP that new ideas from the group had been "conveyed by the mediators to the American side, which welcomed them and passed them on to the Israeli side".

"Now the ball is in the Israeli court."

There has been no truce since a one-week pause in November when 80 Israeli captives were freed in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Pressure has mounted domestically for another captive release deal, with regular protests and rallies in Israel.

The war has uprooted 90 percent of Gaza's population, destroyed much of its housing and other infrastructure, and left almost 500,000 people enduring "catastrophic" hunger, UN agencies say.

* This story has been edited by Ahram Online.