Israeli airstrikes kill over 40 as war toll tops 58k in Gaza Strip

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli airstrikes 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.

- Agencies

Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people have been killed in the war.

In the October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 in a raid on northern Israel. Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead.

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.