Tel Aviv — After five days of negotiations in Qatar and two meetings in Washington between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump, there was still no ceasefire agreement for Gaza on Thursday. Netanyahu was reportedly preparing to leave Washington to fly back home.
At the start of the week, the Trump administration sounded optimistic that a deal could be done as soon as the weekend. On Wednesday evening, however, a senior Israeli official said it could still take 20 more days to reach an agreement.
Gaza, meanwhile, remains a warzone, as the Israeli military continues to pursue its offensive against the U.S.- and Israeli-designated terrorist group Hamas.
Israel has not allowed international journalists into Gaza since the war started, but over the past 24 hours, huge plumes of smoke from explosions have been visible from the Israel-Gaza border.
Strikes pounded targets across the Palestinian territory on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Hospital workers said at least 55 Palestinians were killed.
In one incident in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, 15 people were killed as they waited for nutritional supplements at a clinic run by the U.S.-based charity Project HOPE, the organization said. Most of them were women and children.
Ramadan Abed/REUTERS 
The charity said in a statement that the missile had struck “directly in front of Project HOPE’s Altayara health clinic, killing 15 civilians, including 10 children and two women, and injuring many more. The strike occurred as patients had gathered outside the clinic, awaiting its opening to receive treatment for malnutrition, infections, chronic illnesses, and more.”
“Project HOPE’s health clinics are a place of refuge in Gaza where people bring their small children, women access pregnancy and postpartum care, people receive treatment for malnutrition, and more,” Rabih Torbay, Project HOPE’s president and CEO, said in the statement. “This morning, innocent families were mercilessly attacked as they stood in line waiting for the doors to open.”
Torbay called it “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza, even as ceasefire talks continue,” adding: “This cannot continue.”
Surveillance video from an adjacent business shows two young men walking past the group as it is suddenly hit.
The Israel Defense Forces said the target of the strike was a “terrorist” who had participated in the Hamas-orchestrated attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. The IDF added that it regretted any harm to uninvolved individuals, and said it was investigating the incident.
Ramadan Abed/REUTERS 
“This is just a tragedy. It is a violation of humanitarian law. No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” said Dr. Mithqal Abutaha, the Project Hope project manager, who had been at another clinic when the attack occurred.
The IDF said troops have been operating in Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, to dismantle more Hamas infrastructure this week, purportedly including a tunnel, missile launch sites and weapons storage facilities.
On Thursday, the IDF announced that a soldier was killed during an abduction attempt in Khan Younis. That brings the number of Israeli military personnel killed in Gaza this week alone to six.
Over the past three weeks, 18 Israeli soldiers have died, making it one of the deadliest periods for the IDF in months – and likely increasing domestic pressure on Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire.
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