40 Palestinians killed in Gaza as Netanyahu and Trump meet over a ceasefire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) – At least 40 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Wednesday, as international mediators raced to complete a ceasefire deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a second meeting in two days with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday evening. Trump has been pushing for a ceasefire that might lead to an end to the 21-month war in Gaza. Israel and Hamas are considering a new U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal that would pause the war, free Israeli hostages and send much-needed aid into Gaza.

Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said the dead included 17 women and 10 children. It said one strike killed 10 people from the same family, including three children.

The Israeli military did not comment on specific strikes, but said it had struck more than 100 targets across Gaza over the past day, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, missile launchers and tunnels. Israel accuses Hamas of hiding weapons and fighters among civilians.

On Wednesday, crowds of people bid farewell to the 10 members of the Shaaban family killed in an Israeli strike while they were inside their tent in Khan Younis.

“I found all my children dead, and my daughters’ three children dead,” said Um Mohammad Shaaban, a nickname that means Mohammad Shaaban’s mother. “It’s supposed to be a safe area where we were.”

Even with talks of a ceasefire taking place, she said that strikes have intensified and fears for her life. “The hospital last night was jam-packed,” she said.

As she wept over the bodies of her three grandchildren, others holding the bodies struggled to let go before they were sent to burial.

Many Palestinians are watching the ceasefire negotiations with trepidation, desperate for an end to the war.

In the sprawling coastal Muwasi area, where many live in ad-hoc tents after being displaced from their homes, Abeer al-Najjar said she had struggled during the constant bombardments to secure sufficient food and water for her family. “I pray to God that there would be a pause, and not just a pause where they would lie to us with a month or two, then start doing what they’re doing to us again. We want a full ceasefire.”

Her husband, Ali al-Najjar, said life has been especially tough in the summer, with no access to drinking water in a crowded tent in the Middle Eastern heat. “We hope this would be the end of our suffering and we can rebuild our country again,” he said, before running through a crowd with two buckets to fill them from a water truck.

People chased the vehicle as it drove away to another location.

Amani Abu-Omar said the water truck comes every four days, not enough for her dehydrated children. She complained of skin rashes in the summer heat. She said she was desperate for a ceasefire but fears she would be let down again. “We had expected ceasefires on many occasions, but it was for nothing,” she said.

The war started after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been released in earlier ceasefires. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

Netanyahu told reporters in the Capitol on Tuesday that he and Trump see “eye to eye” on the need to destroy Hamas. He added that the cooperation and coordination between Israel and the U.S. is currently the best it has ever been during Israel’s 77-year-history.

Later this week, Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to head to the Qatari capital of Doha to continue indirect negotiations with Hamas on the ceasefire proposal.

Witkoff said late Tuesday that three key areas of disagreement had been resolved, but that one key issue still remained. He did not elaborate.

After the second meeting, Netanyahu said he and Trump also discussed the “great victory” over Iran from Israeli and American strikes during the 12-day war that ended two weeks ago.

“Opportunities have been opened here for expanding the circle of peace, for expanding the Abraham Accords,” said Netanyahu, referring to normalization agreements between Israel and multiple Arab nations that were brokered by Trump in his first term. Washington has been pushing for normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut, and Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.