CAIRO: At least nine Palestinians were killed, including two local journalists, and others wounded on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s northern Beit Lahiya town, Gaza’s health ministry said, as Hamas’ leaders hold Gaza ceasefire talks with mediators in Cairo.

Several were critically injured as the strike hit a car, with casualties inside and outside the vehicle, health officials said.

Witnesses and fellow journalists said the people in the car were on a mission for a charity called Al-Khair Foundation in Beit Lahiya, and they were accompanied by journalists and photographers when the strike hit them. At least three local journalists were among the dead, according to Palestinian media.

The incident underscores the fragility of the Jan 19 ceasefire agreement that halted large-scale fighting in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian health officials say several people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the truce.

Commenting on the latest deaths, Palestinian group Hamas accused Israel in a statement of attempting to renege on the ceasefire agreement, putting the number of Palestinians killed since Jan 19 at 150.

It urged mediators to compel Israel to move ahead with the implementation of the phased ceasefire deal, blaming Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the impasse.

Since a temporary first phase of the ceasefire expired on March 2, Israel has rejected opening the second phase of talks, which would require it to negotiate over a permanent end to the conflict, the main demand of Hamas. The incident coincided with a visit by Hamas’ exiled Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, to Cairo for further ceasefire talks aimed at resolving disputes with Israel that could risk a resumption of fighting in the enclave.

On Friday, Hamas said it had agreed to free an American-Israeli dual national if Israel begins the next phase of ceasefire talks towards a permanent end to the conflict, an offer Israel dismissed as “psychological warfare.”

Hamas said it had made the offer to release New Jersey native Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army, after receiving a proposal from mediators for negotiations on the second phase of a ceasefire deal. Israel says it wants to extend the ceasefire’s temporary first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing prisoners only under the second phase.

During the truce’s initial six-week phase, fighters released 33 prisoners, including eight who were deceased, in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons. Hamas said that “the ball is in Israel’s court” after offering to release an Israeli-US prisoner and return the bodies of four others as part of the truce talks.

“This heinous crime comes in the context of the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists, who pay with their lives to convey the truth and expose the crimes of the occupation to the world,” a Palestinian Journalists Syndicate statement said.

“The continuation of these brutal attacks against journalists constitutes a war crime and a blatant violation of international laws, especially the Geneva Convention, which guarantees the protection of journalists during conflicts.” The director of Hamas-affiliated media in Gaza, Ismail Thawabteh, said that local photo journalists were killed while “using a drone to capture images of a Ramzan dining table in Beit Lahia”

He said they were “directly targeted by the occupation in two air strikes, despite their work being clear”.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2025