Extract from ABC News
Israel's military says strikes hit 40 different targets across Gaza on Friday. (Reuters: Saeed Mohammed)
In short:
First responders in Gaza say 16 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Friday, local time.
Air raid sirens also blared in parts of Israel as Hamas launched rockets across the border.
What's next?
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned further rocket launches by Hamas would prompt intense retaliatory strikes.
Israel's military has launched a series of strikes against targets across Gaza on Friday, local time, which the Hamas-run civil defence service says killed 16 people.
It came on the same day air raid sirens sounded in parts of Israel, prompted by the launching of three rockets by Hamas.
Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, warned of intense retaliation if the Palestinian militant group continues launching rockets from Gaza.
The military said one of Friday's rockets "fell adjacent to the community of Nir Am, and the second projectile fell in an open area".
Earlier in the day, it said another rocket fired from Gaza had triggered sirens near Beeri.
No injuries were reported from the launches.
Meanwhile, first responders in Gaza say the air strikes on Friday killed 16 people in the enclave.
The spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency, Mahmoud Bassal, said the victims included children who were killed in air strikes on Gaza City, the central Maghazi refugee camp, and the southern city of Rafah.
"Friday was a harsh day for the residents of Gaza, particularly in Gaza City, due to the continuous Israeli bombardment," he said.
Israel's military said the strikes were aimed at "approximately 40 Hamas terrorist gathering points" in Gaza.
It said many of the targets were embedded in former schools.
There were seens of anguish at hospitals after the strikes. (Reuters: Saeed Mohammed)
Mr Bassal denied the Israeli military's claims, accusing Israeli forces of "committing massacres under the pretext of the presence of militants".
The Israeli army has conducted intense raids in Gaza's north since October last year, claiming it aims to keep Hamas fighters from regrouping there.
The Palestinian health ministry on Friday updated the death toll from strikes on Thursday to at least 71 people.
UN urges actions amid freezing conditions
The United Nations's migration agency on Friday said it was alarmed by the recent deaths of displaced Palestinians, including babies, due to hypothermia.
In mid-December, a coordinating group of international and local humanitarian organisations estimated 945,000 displaced people in Gaza still needed help to find shelter from freezing conditions.
While the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) had more than 1.5 million winter supplies such as tents and bedding kits ready at warehouses, it said "severe access restrictions" were preventing them from being deployed.
"Vulnerable people, including at least seven infants, have died from hypothermia, and these tragic deaths underscore the urgent need for shelter and other help to get to the people of Gaza immediately," IOM director general Amy Pope said.
Various organisations say nearly 1 million Palestinians are without shelter through the Northern Hemisphere's winter. (Reuters: Abd Elhkeem Khaled)
The IOM called for a ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access, along with the release of all hostages.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 terror attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The terrorists also seized at least 250 hostages, 96 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory response has so far killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.
'Indirect' ceasefire talks resume
Hamas announced truce talks between it and Israel would resume on Friday.
It follows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorising Israeli negotiators to continue talks in the Qatari capital Doha.
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 more than a year of devastating conflict in Gaza.
A key obstacle to a deal has been Israel's reluctance to agree to a lasting ceasefire.
In December, Qatar expressed optimism that "momentum" was returning to the talks following Donald Trump's election victory in the United States.
But a war of words then broke out with Hamas accusing Israel of setting "new conditions" while Israel accused Hamas of creating "new obstacles" to a deal.
In its Friday statement, Hamas said it reaffirmed its "seriousness, positivity and commitment to reaching an agreement as soon as possible that meets the aspirations and goals of our steadfast and resilient people".
AFP/AP/Reuters
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