Israeli warplanes pounded the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 22 people and damaging Gaza’s only Catholic church as ceasefire negotiations in Doha showed no sign of progress, Palestinian medics and church officials said.
Five of the dead were members of one family—parents and three children—struck in their home in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Another raid in the north killed eight men assigned to guard aid convoys, health workers reported. Additional strikes left three dead in central Gaza and four in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district.
The Holy Family Church, where Argentine priest Father Gabriel Romanelli routinely briefed the late Pope Francis on the conflict, sustained damage during a morning strike. Romanelli was treated at al‑Ahly Hospital for a leg wound, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned Israel’s “unacceptable” attacks on civilians. The Israel Defense Forces said it was reviewing the incident, adding that it “regrets any harm” to non‑combatants or religious sites.
Talks deadlocked
Qatar‑ and Egypt‑mediated talks, backed by Washington, have dragged on for more than 10 days over a proposed 60‑day truce that would see Hamas release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners.
Two Hamas officials told Reuters discussions were “stalled,” citing disputes over Israeli troop‑withdrawal maps, aid‑delivery channels and guarantees the ceasefire would evolve into a full‑scale end to the war. A U.S. official had described the negotiations as “going well” earlier this week—an assessment Palestinian sources dismissed as “empty rhetoric.”
Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might relax demands to keep forces along the Morag Corridor in southern Gaza, but his office declined comment.
Human toll
Gaza health authorities say Israel’s campaign—unleashed after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross‑border assault—has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians. Israeli tallies put fatalities since then at nearly 1,650, including some 1,200 people slain in the Hamas attack that triggered the war.