DEIR AL-BALAH: European officials struck a new deal with Israel to allow desperately needed food and fuel into Gaza, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said Thursday as Israeli airstrike killed 10 children and five adults waiting for care outside a medical clinic.
The announcement came as prospects for a ceasefire agreement in the near term appeared to be fading as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to leave Washington after meetings with President Donald Trump.
Still, US officials held out hope that restarting high-level negotiations — mediated by Egypt and Qatar and including White House envoy Steve Witkoff — could bring progress.
“We’re closer than we’ve been in quite a while and we’re hopeful, but we also recognize there’s still some challenges in the way,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters during a stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Deal to increase aid
Thursday’s agreement could result in “more crossings open, aid and food trucks entering Gaza, repair of vital infrastructure and protection of aid workers,” said Kaja Kallas, the 27-member EU’s top diplomat.
“We count on Israel to implement every measure agreed,” she said in a post on social media.
Aid groups say Israeli military restrictions and recurring violence have made it difficult to deliver assistance in Gaza even after Israel eased its 2 1/2 month total blockade in May. Experts have warned that the territory is at risk of famine, 21 months into the Israel-Hamas war.
Kallas said the deal would reactivate aid corridors from Jordan and Egypt and reopen community bakeries and kitchens across Gaza. She said measures would be taken to prevent the militant Hamas group from diverting aid.
Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid and selling it to finance militant activities. The United Nations says there is no evidence for widespread diversion.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar acknowledged the deal while attending a conference in Vienna, saying it came “following our dialogue with the EU.” He said the deal includes "more trucks, more crossings and more routes for the humanitarian efforts.”
Neither Saar not Kallas said whetehr the aid would go through the UN-run system or an alternative, US- and Israeli-backed mechanism that has been marred by violence and controversy.
Israeli strikes kill at least 36
Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least 36 Palestinians, including 15 people waiting outside a medical clinic, local hospitals and aid workers said Thursday. The Israeli military said one soldier was killed in Gaza.
Gaza’s Nasser Hospital reported a total of 21 deaths in airstrikes in the southern town of Khan Younis and the nearby coastal area of Muwasi. It said three children and their mother, as well as two other women, were among the dead.
The 15 killed early Thursday outside the clinic in the central city of Deir al-Balah were waiting for nutritional supplements, according to Project Hope, an aid group that runs the humanitarian facility. Along with the 10 childrenm two women were also among those killed.
“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed," said Dr. Mithqal Abutaha, the group's project manager, who was at another clinic at the time. "People had to come seeking health and support, instead they faced death."
Following the strike, families gathered in the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital to pray over the bodies of those killed, laid across the floor.
Omar Meshmesh held the body of his 3-year-old niece Aya Meshmesh. “What did she ever do? Did she throw a rocket at them or throw something at them? ... she’s an innocent child,” he said.
Israel's military said it struck near the clinic while targeting a militant it said had entered Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It said it was investigating.
West Bank violence
Two Palestinian attackers killed a 22-year-old Israeli man at an Israeli supermarket in a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday afternoon, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services.
Israeli police said two people in a stolen vehicle attacked a security guard at the supermarket. Paramedics said people on site shot and killed the two attackers. Police did not release information about the attackers, but the Israeli military said forces are setting up roadblocks around the Palestinian town of Halhul, around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the supermarket.
Earlier Thursday, a 55-year-old Palestinian man was killed in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said the man was shot after stabbing a soldier in the village of Rumana. The soldier suffered moderate wounds.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military targeting militants in large-scale operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands.
That has coincided with a rise in settler violence and Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Palestinian militants from the West Bank have also attacked and killed Israelis in Israel and the West Bank.
The war began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Most have been released in earlier ceasefires.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.