Israeli Attack Kills 34 People, Tanks Attack In Gaza Strip

JAKARTA - Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip killed 34 Palestinians. Israeli tanks pushed into areas in the central and southern parts of Gaza.

Reported by Reuters on Tuesday, December 10, Israeli airstrikes killed 25 people in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been operating since October, and injured dozens more in high-rise buildings, medics said.

Palestinian Civil Emergency said most of the dead came from the same family, including women and children.

Photos posted online, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed the bodies were lined up at mass graves in the city.

Another air attack on houses in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza has killed seven people. This attack injured several others, Palestinian Civil Emergency and medical services said.

Another explosion killed two people in Rafah in the south of the region.

In Deir Al-Balah near the coast, Israeli naval forces detained six Palestinian fishermen who tried to sail into the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday morning, according to residents.

The ceasefire efforts carried out by Arab, Egyptian and Qatar mediators, backed by the United States, failed to reach an agreement.

But signs of recent optimism among Israeli and Palestinian officials suggest an agreement to end the war could be closer.

On Monday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said increasing Hamas isolation after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria could open the door to an agreement to repatriate the hostages but it was too early to say whether the effort would work.

On Tuesday, a Hamas official declined to disclose the contents of the negotiations but told Reuters that mediators had recently stepped up their efforts, citing the group's willingness to show the flexibility needed to end Israeli aggression.