LAST UPDATE | 28 Jun

AT LEAST 72 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, the health ministry there has said.

The strikes began late on Friday and continued into Saturday morning, among others killing 12 people near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City, which was sheltering displaced people, and eight more living in apartments, according to staff at Shifa hospital where the bodies were brought.

Three children and their parents were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent camp in Muwasi near the southern city of Khan Younis. They were struck while sleeping, relatives said.

A midday strike killed 11 people on a street in eastern Gaza City, and their bodies were taken to Al-Ahli Hospital. A strike on a gathering at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed two, according to Al-Awda hospital.

The wave of deadly strikes come as the US and Qatar claim prospects of a ceasefire are near.

Last night, US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful a truce could be agreed by as early as next week. Mediator Qatar has called on Israel and Hamas to seize the opportunity for peace in the region.

“If we don’t utilise this window of opportunity and this momentum, it’s an opportunity lost amongst many in the near past. We don’t want to see that again,” a spokesperson for the Qatari government said today.

Gaza has been under siege by Israel since an attack by Hamas in October 2023, which killed approximately 1,200 Israelis. Over 56,000 Palestinians, including civilians, have been killed in the Israeli government’s counteroffensive to the attack.

Roughly 50 hostages, taken by militant group Hamas during the October attack, remain in Gaza. Their families in Israel are hopeful that US involvement will secure a ceasefire, as a previous truce saw dozens held captive released before Israel began strikes on Gaza once more.

The UN has condemned an aid blockade that has been placed on the region in recent months. A US-Israeli-backed aid distribution organisation has been set up in Gaza, but other NGOs refuse to cooperate with the group over impartiality concerns.

Hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid at the sites set up by the organisation have been killed by Israeli troops in recent weeks, becoming a near-daily occurrence. An Israeli newspaper this week reported that soldiers are routinely ordered to fire at civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been riding on a wave of support for Israel’s war in Iran. However, many western nations have recently condemned his government’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.

A recent review of the EU’s trade deal with Israel found that its actions in Palestine and its occupied territories breached human rights obligations included in the agreement. European leaders decided to delay any action to suspend the deal this week, however.

Ireland has been amongst the European nations which have continually condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza. Government leaders, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris, have recently described Israel’s offensive as “genocide”.

The Irish government has recently begun the legislative steps to introduce a ban on trade of goods with illegal Israeli settlements in Gaza, citing a preliminary opinion by the International Court of Justice.

The government has been criticised by opposition for excluding the trade of services in the legislation. Harris promised this week to include services in the legislation at a later date, claiming further legal advice is required first.

Harris and Martin have both said that the introduction of the legislation will spark further action by other European nations.

But European leaders cannot come to a unanimous agreement on taking action against Israel for its breaches of the EU trade agreement. They this week deferred a decision until a special leaders’ summit in Brussels next month.

With reporting by AFP and Press Association.

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