Emergency crews recover bodies in Gaza City as negotiations continue in Egypt

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Dozens of bodies collected throughout Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood arrived at Al-Ahli Hospital on Friday morning while civil defense workers said they continued to recover the dead from destroyed streets and buildings.

Hospital director Fadel Naem told The Associated Press that people both dead and wounded had been brought from Tel al-Hawa to the hospital less than a day after it resumed operations following the evacuation earlier in the week due to the fighting in the area.

About 60 bodies have been recovered, including entire families who appeared to have been killed by artillery fire and aerial bombardment, Mahmoud Basal, the director of Civil Defense in Gaza said.

“There are homes that we cannot reach, and there are those who were burned inside their homes,” he said, noting many of those who were killed had left nearby shelters after being ordered to evacuate.

The Israeli military said it could not comment on Tel al-Hawa. The scenes mirror those in another Gaza City neighborhood, Shuja’iyyah, from which Israel’s military has withdrawn in recent days.

On Thursday, civil defense workers found an additional 60 bodies in Shuja’iyyah under similar circumstances, with more believed to be buried under rubble. Basal said bodies in Tel al-Hawa were found decomposing or partially mauled by dogs.

The latest announcements of casualties comes as the United Nations estimates that about 300,000 Palestinians were still in northern Gaza, as of earlier this week, despite being ordered to evacuate. Much of the population left earlier in the war. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are now experiencing widespread hunger while crammed into squalid tent camps.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,300 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Meanwhile in Cairo, mediators continue to push to narrow gaps between Israel and Hamas over a proposal deal that would include a cease-fire and hostage release in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Thursday that Israel would send a delegation for further talks as U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators attempt to seal an agreement.

Obstacles remain, however as Hamas insists that talks continue until a permanent cease-fire is reached while Netanyahu says Israel won’t agree to any deal that would stop its military campaign before Hamas is eliminated.

Netanyahu is under growing pressure both domestically and internationally. Large segments of the Israeli population are demanding an agreement to release the hostages after nine months of war, though Netanyahu has insisted that the offensive won’t end until Israel achieves its goal of eliminating Hamas.

Relatives of hostages are marching to Jerusalem to demand a deal and the release of their loved ones as Israeli politicians, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, call for a broad government investigation into the conduct of Israel’s leaders.

A risk of regional escalation remains. Israel’s military said Friday one of its soldiers was killed in combat in northern Israel as the country’s army and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah continue to trade cross-border fire. The Iranian-backed group and Israel have been trading near-daily exchanges of fire, with Hezbollah saying it is striking Israel in solidarity with Hamas and would stop its attacks once there is a cease-fire in Gaza.

President Joe Biden in a press conference Thursday talked about disappointment and frustration with the war and Israel’s government, pointing to the increasing hopes of a cease-fire.

Biden said Israel and Hamas had now both agreed to the broad terms of a deal to pause fighting and free hostages, and said that made prospects brighter. Mediators were helping to fill in the gaps in the agreement, he said.

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AP writers Sam Metz contributed from Rabat, Morocco and Jack Jeffery from Ramallah, West Bank.