Gaza hit by heavy air strikes after inconclusive ceasefire talks in Rome

A new round of talks between mediators was held in Italy but failed to secure a breakthrough as Israel submitted a draft agreement

Wounded Palestinians and their relatives await treatment at Nasser Hospital in the south-eastern district of Khan Younis. AFP

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Israeli air strikes were reported near Al Nuseirat camp in the centre of Gaza on Monday morning, more than a week into a major assault on the southern part of the enclave.

Drones fired on civilians on Al Sina and Al Maghribi streets while the army destroyed homes in the Tal Al Hawa quarter and set fire to others in Al Nuseirat camp, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The air strikes came a day after the Israeli military ordered people to leave the area of Al Bureij camp, also in central Gaza, before launching operations there.

Thousands departed and headed to Nuseirat or the nearby city of Deir Al Balah, Wafa reported.

The evacuation orders over the past week displaced 9 per cent of Gaza's population, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said on Monday.

There were 29,000 people living in the area Israel ordered to be cleared on Sunday, it added.

Wafa reported that Ali Al Tatar, six, had died “as a result of malnutrition” at Al Ahli Arab hospital in northern Gaza, where the UN said a full-blown famine had taken hold.

This brings the total number of people who died from a lack of food to 39, Wafa said.

The Palestinian death toll from Israel's offensive in Gaza rose to 39,363 after 39 people were killed between Sunday and Monday, while the number of injured rose by 93 to 90,923, the local Health Ministry said.

The war began on October 7 with cross-border raids by Palestinian militants who killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 240 hostages back to Gaza.

Three more bodies arrived at Al Ahli Arab Hospital – after being killed three days ago in the neighbourhood of Sabra, in the western part of the Gaza Strip, local sources reported.

Efforts by the US, Qatar and Egypt to mediate a ceasefire have failed so far. Israel submitted another draft ceasefire agreement to mediators in Rome on Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister's office said, with talks set to continue “in the coming days”.

The meeting was scheduled to take place on Thursday in Doha but was postponed until Sunday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heavily criticised for the delay by the families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Israel's Kan broadcaster cited an Israeli official who said it was a “meeting for the sake of a meeting”.

The war has prevented 39,000 high school pupils from Gaza from sitting their school-leaving exams, Palestine's Ministry of Education said on Monday as the results of the exams were released.

Celebrations by successful Palestinian students in the occupied West Bank were muted out of respect for their counterparts in Gaza, where about 10,000 pupils and 400 teachers have been killed in the war, according to the ministry.

“We are keeping our celebrations indoors and not publicising them out of respect to the martyrs of Gaza,” said Ammar Awamer, who scored 99.4 per cent in one of the exams.

Turkey warning

Turkey warned it could “enter” Israel “as it did in the past in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh”, although President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not specify the type of intervention he mentioned.

In the previous conflicts, Turkey equipped allies with drones and other military equipment, also sending advisers.

“We must be very strong so that Israel can't do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” Mr Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party in Rize on Sunday.

“There is no reason why we cannot do this … We must be strong so that we can take these steps.”