18 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes

GAZA — Gaza's civil defense agency said on Sunday that overnight Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory killed at least 18 people, including four displaced individuals who had sought refuge in a tent.

Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that rescuers worked through the night, recovering the bodies of 18 people, while dozens more were injured in the "ongoing aggression and Israeli aerial and artillery bombardment" across Gaza.

Bassal said the dead included four people killed in an Israeli strike targeting a house in central Gaza City.

Another four were killed and eight injured when an Israeli missile struck a tent sheltering dozens of displaced people in Deir el-Balah city in central Gaza.

AFP photographs showed heart-wrenching scenes as relatives retrieved the bodies of their loved ones from a hospital in Gaza City, while others lay covered in blankets within the facility's ward.

On Saturday, Bassal said Deir el-Balah's mayor, Diab al-Jaro, was killed in a similar strike.

The Israeli military later claimed responsibility for that strike, accusing Jaro of being "an operative in Hamas' military wing".

Another strike in Gaza City on a United Nations school housing displaced people targeted Hamas fighters, the Israeli military said.

Bassal said seven people were killed, including women and children, and at least 10 wounded.

The school was run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, but like many such facilities, it had been turned into a makeshift shelter for those displaced by the conflict.

Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis demonstrated on Saturday for a deal to release the remaining hostages still held in Gaza.

"We all can agree that we have failed until now and that we can reach an agreement now," Lior Ashkenazi, a prominent Israeli actor, told a crowd gathered in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv.

Itzik Horn, whose sons Eitan and Iair are still being held captive in Gaza, said, "End the war, the time has arrived for action and the time has arrived to bring everyone home."

There has been guarded optimism in recent days that a cease-fire and hostage release deal for Gaza might finally be within reach after months of abortive mediation efforts.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday discussed with visiting US officials efforts to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and a hostages-for-prisoners deal in the Palestinian enclave, El-Sisi's office said.

Agencies via Xinhua