Extract from ABC News
In short:
An Israeli air strike near a United Nations-run school has killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others, local authorities say.
Israel claims a strike on Saturday killed Hamas's Khan Younis brigade commander, but the fate of the group's armed wing leader, Mohammed Deif, is unknown.
What's next?
Ceasefire talks look set to continue with a senior Hamas official saying the group remained at the table despite the weekend strikes.
More than a dozen Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike that hit an area near a United Nations-operated school in central Gaza, local health officials say.
WARNING: The following story contains content that some readers may find distressing.
The Hamas-run media office said 15 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the strike in Nuseirat camp, one of the Gaza Strip's eight longstanding refugee camps.
The Israeli military said the site was used as a base for Hamas fighters to attack Israeli forces and said numerous steps were taken to limit the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and intelligence.
Residents said two missiles targeted the upper floor of the school, not far from the camp's local market, usually busy with shoppers, where displaced families have also taken shelter nearby.
On Sunday, the IDF said Hamas's Khan Younis brigade commander was killed in a separate air strike on Saturday that also targeted the head of the group's armed wing, Mohammed Deif.
The military said Rafa Salama was one of Deif's closest associates and was involved in planning the October 7 Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people in southern Israel.
His death, "significantly impedes Hamas' military capabilities," the military said.
The IDF statement gave no update on Deif, who has long topped Israel's most-wanted list and has been in hiding for years.
Hamas representatives said he was in good health but gave no evidence to back up their assertion.
Israel chief of the general staff Herzi Halevi said in a televised statement that Hamas was "trying to hide" the results of the strike.
Ceasefire negotiations ongoing
Saturday's strike in the Khan Younis area of Gaza — which killed at least 90 Palestinians according to local health authorities — had put ceasefire talks in doubt.
But a senior Hamas official said on Sunday that the Islamist group had not withdrawn from negotiations.
Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of the political office of Hamas, accused Israel of trying to derail efforts by Arab mediators and the United States to reach a ceasefire deal by stepping up its attacks in the enclave.
There had been increasingly hopeful signs in recent days that a deal could be reached to halt fighting and return hostages held in Gaza.
Two Egyptian security sources at ceasefire talks in Doha and Cairo said on Saturday that negotiations had been halted after three days of intense talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to convene his close circle of ministers later on Sunday to discuss the talks.
Hamas said 141 killed in a day
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli air strikes on four houses in Gaza City killed at least 16 Palestinians and wounded dozens of others, medics said.
The Gaza health ministry said at least 38,584 Palestinians had been killed and 88,881 others injured in Israel's military offensive since October 7.
It added that 141 Palestinians were killed by Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip in the past day, the biggest one-day death toll in many weeks.
Gaza's health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but officials say most of the dead throughout the war have been civilians.
Israel has lost 326 soldiers in Gaza and says at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities are fighters.
Reuters/AP/ABC
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