US Mideast Envoy Says Phase Two Gaza Talks to Continue This Week

 Buildings lie in ruin inside Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Buildings lie in ruin inside Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Mideast Envoy Says Phase Two Gaza Talks to Continue This Week

 Buildings lie in ruin inside Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel February 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Buildings lie in ruin inside Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel February 15, 2025. (Reuters)

US Middle envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that talks on phase two of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas would continue this week "at a location to be determined" to figure out how to reach a successful conclusion.

He told Fox News that he had "very productive and constructive" calls on Sunday with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt's director of intelligence.

Witkoff said they spoke about "the sequencing of phase two, setting forth positions on both sides, so we can understand ... where we are today, and then continuing talks this week at a location to be determined so that we can figure out how we get to the end of phase two successfully."



Gaza Rescuers Say Seven Killed in Israeli Air Strikes 

21 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians hose down hotspots as they clean up the residue of tents destroyed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City. (Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
21 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians hose down hotspots as they clean up the residue of tents destroyed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City. (Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
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Gaza Rescuers Say Seven Killed in Israeli Air Strikes 

21 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians hose down hotspots as they clean up the residue of tents destroyed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City. (Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
21 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza City: Palestinians hose down hotspots as they clean up the residue of tents destroyed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City. (Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)

Gaza's civil defense agency said Tuesday that seven people were killed in fresh Israeli air strikes across the Hamas-run territory.

"The occupation launched violent air strikes on Gaza City and the towns of Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and Khan Younis, killing seven civilians," civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.

Four people were killed in the Al-Rimal area near Gaza City, two in Al-Sabra west of Gaza City and one in Khan Younis.

"The occupation also destroyed more than 10 homes east of Gaza City and in Rafah," he added.

The Israeli military, which did not immediately comment, has intensified its aerial bombardments and expanded its ground operations in the Gaza Strip since it resumed its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory on March 18.

Gaza's civil defense agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out "summary executions" in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.

At least 1,691 people have been killed in Gaza since the military resumed its offensive, bringing the total death toll since the war erupted to at least 51,065, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Hamas's attack on Israel that ignited the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.