30 Palestinians killed in Israeli overnight airstrikes in Gaza: sources

GAZA - At least 30 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded in Israeli overnight airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security and medical sources said on Sunday.

The sources told Xinhua that Israeli warplanes launched more than 50 raids last night across Gaza, targeting homes, agricultural lands, and military sites in the cities of Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, and Jabalia.

Sixteen Palestinians, including children and women, were killed in an Israeli raid on an inhabited house in the Al-Salam neighborhood in Rafah, southern Gaza, said local medical sources.

Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the Al-Saftawi neighborhood, north of Gaza City, killing four Palestinians and wounding several others, according to local sources and eyewitnesses.

In the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, 10 Palestinians were killed as a result of an Israeli raid that targeted an inhabited house near a UNRWA school housing displaced persons.

The Israeli military said that three of its soldiers were killed on Saturday in the city of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said in a brief statement on Saturday that its members "blew up a house that had been previously booby-trapped with two anti-personnel devices of an Israeli force".

They said that Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded in the Al-Satar area, north of the city of Khan Younis.

As fierce fighting continued in Gaza, Cairo was preparing to host talks on a ceasefire in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, with the participation of all concerned parties, Egypt's Al-Qahera News TV reported Saturday.

A high-level Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on a ceasefire deal, according to an official security source on Sunday.

During the past 24 hours, a total of 90 Palestinians were killed and 177 others wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza, bringing the total death toll to 30,410 and injuries to 71,700 since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct 7, 2023, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said in a press statement on Sunday.

Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has tried to broker a truce deal before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to start in about a week in Egypt, as part of the diplomatic efforts to end a conflict that has incurred a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza.