Amid cease-fire progress, Israel kills 23 more Palestinians in strikes across Gaza

Amid ongoing progress in the Gaza cease-fire talks, Israel continues its genocidal war on Gaza killing in overnight airstrikes at least 23 more Palestinians in areas across Gaza.

The Israeli deadly airstrikes on Gaza came as reports suggested that Palestinians and Israelis are nearing a cease-fire and prisoner-hostage swap deal to end Israel's ongoing genocidal war on Gaza.

A medical source in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, the central Gaza Strip, told Anadolu that nine Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on an apartment, a tent and a cafe that shelter displaced people in the city.

In the southern Gaza Strip, 12 more Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in two Israeli airstrikes on two homes in the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, according to a medical source.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli army intensified and increased its systematic operations of blowing up homes and buildings in areas of northern Rafah.

In Gaza City, in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave, a woman was killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, according to a statement by the Civil Defense.

The local news agency Safa said one of its journalists succumbed to the wounds he sustained from a previous Israeli airstrike on Gaza on Monday.

His death brought the tally of Palestinian journalists killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since October 2023 to 204.

Late on Monday, Palestinian sources told Anadolu that the cease-fire and prisoner-hostage swap deal is almost finalized and might be signed before Friday.

The Israeli public broadcaster KAN said that the Israeli Cabinet may greenlight the cease-fire deal with the Palestinian group Hamas on Tuesday.

The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 46,500 victims, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.