In Pictures

Intense Israeli air strikes hit Gaza amid growing signs of truce

Jabalia in northern Gaza and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south are among the areas hit.

By News Agencies

Israel has kept up its relentless bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip amid growing signs that talks about a truce between Israel and Hamas are making progress.

In Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of residents of the north have fled to escape Israeli bombing, neighbours said on Tuesday that an overnight strike on an apartment had killed seven people, mostly children.

In Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip and in Rafah in the south, Tuesday morning brought tragically familiar scenes of adults and children wounded in bombardments being rushed into overcrowded hospitals.

The Hamas government press office said there was a communications blackout in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip after an Israeli strike hit telecommunications towers.

Israel has bombarded Gaza since October 7 after Hamas fighters carried out attacks that day on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 captive, according to Israeli officials.

More than 14,000 people have been killed in the Israeli air and ground assault on Gaza, including 5,600 children, according to Palestinian officials.

The leader of Hamas said a truce with Israel was close to being finalised, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped for good news soon about the captives in Gaza. The statements were the most optimistic signals so far of a deal to pause the war in Gaza and free prisoners.

US President Joe Biden told reporters that an accord to release some of the people held by Hamas was near. “My team is in the region shuttling between capitals. We’re now very close, very close to bringing some of these hostages home very soon,” he said.

Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas — Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south were among the areas hit by air strikes on November 21, 2023. [Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters]

This picture taken from the border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing following an Israeli strike on the Palestinian territory on November 21 — Israel continues to bomb Gaza as talks are being held over a potential truce. [Menahem Kahana/AFP]

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Tuesday, Nov. 21 — Khan Younis and Rafah, cities in south Gaza where hundreds of thousands of people have fled after Israel told them to leave the north and go there for their own safety, were both hit by air strikes on November 21, 2023. [Leo Correa/AP Photo]

A picture taken from a position near Sderot along the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli bombardment on the northern Palestinian territory on November 21 — More than 13,000 people, many of them women and children, have been killed in the Israeli assault since October 7, according to Palestinian officials. [Fadel Senna/AFP]

A picture taken from a position near Sderot along the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during an Israeli bombardment on the northern Palestinian territory on November 21 — Leaders of the BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - called at a summit for an "immediate" humanitarian truce in Gaza. [Fadel Senna/AFP]