Israeli strikes kill over 40 as truce talks deadlocked

ISRAEL, HAMAS ACCUSE EACH OTHER OF BLOCKING ATTEMPTS TO SECURE TRUCE

- Agence France-Presse

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 40 Palestinians, including at a market and a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.

Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Gaza Strip.

But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in the Qatari capital, Doha.

There has meanwhile been no letup in Israeli strikes on Gaza, where most of the population of more than two million have been displaced at least once during the war.

Seven UN agencies on Saturday warned that a fuel shortage had reached “critical levels”, threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity.

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said at least 43 people were killed in the latest Israeli strikes, including 11 when a market in Gaza City was hit. Eight children were among 10 victims of a drone strike at a water point in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, Bassal said.