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Palestinian medics report that Israeli strikes killed 14 people in Gaza the previous day.

Israeli military strikes killed at least fourteen Palestinians in Gaza Strip during the past 24 hour, said the Gaza Strip's Health Ministry on Sunday. Arab and U.S. mediators are working to maintain a fragile truce between Israel and Hamas.

Palestinian officials claim that Israeli fire has killed dozens of Palestinians despite the truce on January 19, which halted major fighting in Gaza.

Israel's army has stated that its forces have intervened in order to stop "terrorists", who were threatening its troops, or those who had planted bombs.

Gaza's Health Ministry reported that the majority of recent deaths occurred on Saturday, when an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahiya killed nine Palestinians, including four journalists.

Six men, whom Israel's military identified as being members of Hamas' armed wing and Islamic Jihad, a militant group that is allied with Hamas, were killed in this strike. The Israeli military said that some militants were operating "under the cover" of journalists.

Salama Marouf is the head of Hamas' Gaza government media. She said that the statement made by the military about the incident contained names of people not present.

Marouf claimed that the report was based "without bothering to check the facts" and was inaccurate.

Gaza's health officials confirmed that at least four Palestinians died in separate Israeli attacks on Saturday.

The medics reported that an Israeli drone fired a missile on a group in Juhr Eldeek, central Gaza, Sunday, killing one 62-year old man and injuring others. A missile fired by an Israeli drone at a crowd of people in Rafah injured several others, the medics added.

The Israeli military claimed it did not know about the reported drone attacks.

CEASEFIRE TALKS

The bloodshed in Gaza continues to highlight the fragility in the three-stage truce agreement, mediated by Qatar Egypt and the United States. They have intervened to help Israel and Hamas reach an agreement on how to proceed.

Israel is proposing to extend the first phase of the ceasefire, which has been backed by U.S. ambassador Steve Witkoff. Hamas has said it will only resume releasing hostages under the second phase, which was supposed to start on March 2.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that on Saturday, negotiators were instructed to be prepared to continue the talks in response to the mediators' responses to the U.S. proposal to release 11 hostages alive and half the dead.

Hamas said on Friday that it would release the American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four hostage bodies if Israel agreed immediately to start talks on the implementation of the second phase of agreement. Israel accused Hamas in response of "psychological war" against the families of hostages.

Netanyahu's Office said that an Israeli delegation had been in Egypt to discuss a possible agreement with senior Egyptian officials, which would free more hostages.

According to Israeli statistics, the war began on October 7, 2023 when Hamas launched a raid across the border into southern Israel, killing 1200 people and taking 251 hostages.

According to Gaza's health officials, Israel's subsequent attack on Gaza killed over 48,000 Palestinians. It also displaced the majority of the population, and left much of the area in ruins. (Maayan Lubell contributed additional reporting; Nidal al Mughrabi wrote the article; Helen Popper edited it)

(source: Reuters)