An Israeli air strike killed four Palestinians in Gaza yesterday, the territory’s civil emergency service said, as Arab mediators and the United States tried to hammer out differences between Hamas and Israel over the ceasefire agreement, Reuters reports.

The Israeli military claimed its air force attacked “terrorists who were engaged in a suspicious activity on the ground in central Gaza and posed a threat to the force”.

At the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, relatives of the dead men arrived to bid farewell, sitting around the white-shrouded bodies. Medics and relatives said the four dead, who included two brothers, were civilians.

“Did we end the war or what happened? We don’t know,” said Arafat Al-Hana, the father of one of the victims.