US President-elect Donald Trump’s Center East envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday following his go to to Doha, an Israeli official stated, amid efforts to safe a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza.
A second Israeli official stated some progress had been made within the oblique talks between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US, to succeed in a deal in Gaza.
The mediators are making new efforts to succeed in a deal to halt the preventing within the enclave and free the remaining Israeli hostages held there earlier than Trump takes workplace on Jan. 20.
Witkoff arrived in Doha on Friday and met the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in line with a press release launched by Qatar’s international ministry.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators obtained reassurances from Witkoff that the U.S. would proceed to work in direction of a good deal to finish the struggle quickly, Egyptian safety sources stated, although he didn’t give any particulars.
On Saturday, the Palestinian civil emergency service stated eight individuals have been killed, together with two girls and two kids, in an Israeli airstrike on a former faculty sheltering displaced households in Jabalia, within the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli navy stated the strike had focused Hamas militants who have been working on the faculty and that it had taken measures to cut back the chance of hurt to civilians.
Afterward Saturday, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service stated 5 individuals have been killed and several other others have been wounded in two Israeli strikes. One of many two strikes killed three individuals in a home close to the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza Metropolis.
There was no speedy remark from the Israeli navy.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed throughout its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 individuals and taking greater than 250 hostages, in line with Israeli tallies.
Since then, greater than 46,000 individuals have been killed in Gaza, in line with Palestinian well being officers, with a lot of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian disaster, with most of its inhabitants displaced.
