
Palestinians mourn over the bodies of relatives killed in an Israeli strike, outside a hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on January 3, 2025. AFP
The Israeli military said three rockets targeted its territory from the Gaza Strip, the latest in a flurry of launches by militants in the devastated Palestinian territory.
"Friday was a harsh day for the residents of Gaza, particularly in Gaza City, due to the continual Israeli bombardment," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
He said several children were among the dead.
Seven people were killed in an Israeli strike in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, Bassal said.
Gaza resident Mohammed Abu Labda, whose brother was among those killed, said it was an "act of revenge" for Israel.
"They've destroyed everything that moves on this earth, even the trees, so what about people? This is a war of extermination," he told AFP.
He accused the military of "preventing food and drinking water from reaching dozens of medical staff, patients and wounded" at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern town of Beit Lahia.
He said the hospital had sent out distress calls since Thursday, adding that it was now "just a pile of rubble and walls. There's no hospital."
'Nothing but rubble'
On Sunday, a United Nations team visited the Indonesian Hospital.
"Around me there's nothing but rubble and destruction," UN aid official Jonathan Whittall said in a video released after the visit.
As violence raged in the Gaza Strip, Hamas said indirect negotiations with Israel were to resume in Qatar later Friday for a truce and hostage release deal.
Hamas said the talks would "focus on ensuring the agreement leads to a complete cessation of hostilities (and) the withdrawal of occupation forces".
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of back-and-forth talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end nearly 15 months of war.
A key obstacle to a deal has been Israel's reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had authorised Israeli negotiators to continue talks in Doha.
Militants, meanwhile, fired three rockets from Gaza towards Israel, the military said.
Such launches have become far rarer than earlier in the war but have intensified since late December as Israel presses on with a three-month offensive in the north of the territory.
UN human rights experts said on Monday that the north Gaza "siege" appears to be part of an effort "to permanently displace the local population as a precursor to Gaza's annexation".
Bassal estimated that 10,000 people remained in the northern towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, down from 150,000 to 200,000 before the war.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 45,658 people and wounded more than 100,000 in Gaza, the majority of them women and children.
Short link: