Gaza officials say children killed as Israel hits Khan Yunis

Gaza health officials said a wave of Israeli strikes hit the territory's southern district of Khan Yunis on Tuesday evening, killing a dozen people, seven of them children.

At least five strikes targeted parts of Khan Yunis, including one in the Al-Mawasi area where thousands of displaced Palestinians are living in tents along the coast.

Four children were killed when a drone strike hit their tent in the Al-Mawasi area, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry reported.

A witness told AFP that several tents caught fire from the strike, which also wounded more than 20 people.

Five people, including three children, were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in Khan Yunis, Gaza's civil defence agency said.

Two people were killed when a strike hit a car in Khan Yunis, while another two were killed when an apartment was hit.

There was no immediate comment from the military about the latest strikes.

They came as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States brokered negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha on a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure the release of Israeli hostages.

In recent months, the Israeli military has focused its offensive on northern districts of Gaza, particularly the town of Jabalia and its adjacent refugee camp.

"We won't stop. We will bring them (Hamas) to the point where they understand that they must return all hostages," Israel's army chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told troops during a visit to Jabalia late on Monday.

"They see, every single day, what you are doing to them, and they understand that this is becoming unbearable," he said, according to a statement released by the military.

During their October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the war, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of those are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 45,885 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.