Dozens of Israel strikes hit Gaza as ceasefire bid stalls

Israeli airstrikes hit around 40 targets across Gaza over the past day, the Israeli military said, hours after Hamas rejected a ceasefire offer that it said fell short of its demand to agree a full end to the war.

Earlier, Gaza's civil defence agency said that 15 people, including ten from the same family, had been killed in two overnight Israeli strikes.

Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Telegram that "our crews recovered the bodies of ten martyrs and a large number of wounded from the house of the Baraka family and the neighbouring houses targeted by the Israeli occupation forces in the Bani Suhaila area east of Khan Yunis," in southern Gaza.

Mr Bassal later announced that a separate strike hit two houses in northern Gaza's Tal al-Zaatar, where crews had "recovered the bodies of five people".

Last month, the Israeli military broke off a two-month truce that had largely halted fighting in Gaza and has since pushed in from the north and south, seizing almost a third of the enclave as it seeks to pressure Hamas into agreeing to release hostages and disarm.

The military said troops were operating in the Shabura and Tel Al-Sultan areas near the southern city of Rafah, as well as in northern Gaza, where it has taken control of large areas east of Gaza City.

Egyptian mediators have been trying to revive the January ceasefire deal, which broke down when Israel resumed airstrikes and sent ground troops back into Gaza, but there has been little sign that the two sides have moved closer on fundamental issues.

Last night Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, said the Palestinian militant group wants a comprehensive deal to end the war in Gaza and swap all Israeli hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel.

But he dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing "impossible conditions".

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Israel has not responded formally to Mr Al-Hayya's comments but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza.

The ceasefire offer it made through Egyptian mediators includes talks on a final settlement to the war but no firm agreement.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz also said this week that troops would remain in the buffer zone around the border that now extends deep into Gaza and cuts the enclave in two, even after any settlement.