Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill 18 Including 8 Children, Palestinians Say

At least 18 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed on Monday by Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense.

The first responders, operating under the Hamas-run government, also reported that an airstrike in the Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City claimed the lives of three children and their mother.

It added that three more people are missing and feared dead.

Also on Monday, a separate strike in downtown Gaza City killed a child, three women, and a man, Gaza’s health ministry confirmed.

On Tuesday, a dawn airstrike destroyed a home in southern Gaza, killing five, including a father, his three young children, and a woman, The Associated Press reported.

The victims were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Yet another airstrike in the same area flattened a home, killing four more, including a child.

Israel maintains that it strives to avoid civilian harm and accuses Hamas of using residential areas for military operations.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive that began on Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages.

In the West Bank, Palestinian officials said an Israeli airstrike killed five people in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the district of Tulkarem.

The Israeli military confirmed it targeted what it described as an operations room used by militants. The strike is part of a broader escalation in the West Bank, where nearly 640 Palestinians have been killed since the Israel-Hamas conflict began.

Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff meets with Israeli defense leaders

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown, met with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of General Staff Lt General Herzi Halevi on Monday.

The meetings focused on the ongoing conflict, in particular, the clashes along the Israeli-Lebanese border, and emphasized the need for de-escalation to prevent a broader war.

Brown’s visit follows his recent meetings with regional allies in Jordan and Egypt.

Officials in Washington confirmed that despite fierce clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, negotiations in Cairo aimed at securing a Gaza ceasefire are ongoing.

White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said that high-level talks concluded on Sunday without a ceasefire agreement, but that negotiations continue.

The talks are expected to last several more days and are focused in particular on the proposed exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.

Israel continues to shrink the humanitarian zone in Gaza, U.N. says

The United Nations warned that repeated Israeli evacuation orders have drastically reduced Gaza’s humanitarian zone to just 11% of the territory.

The shrinking safe area, combined with ongoing airstrikes, has severely hampered the ability to deliver aid to the besieged population, according to Sam Rose, the U.N. deputy field director for Palestinian refugees.

Rose reported that hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans are being forced to relocate multiple times. He also raised alarms over the re-emergence of polio in Gaza, with the U.N. planning a massive vaccination campaign set to begin on Saturday, involving over 3,000 health workers.

The U.N. operations center in Deir al-Balah was forced to shut down following the latest Israeli evacuation order, further complicating relief efforts. Despite these challenges, UNRWA continues to provide limited health services to around 15,000 Palestinians across Gaza.

Rose emphasized that the blockade is severely limiting the delivery of essential supplies, with only about 100 trucks entering Gaza daily, far short of the 500 trucks needed.