[Source: Reuters]

A Gaza family sat weeping on Saturday over children killed by an Israeli strike as they were getting ready to play soccer, amid an intensified bombardment that Palestinian health authorities said has killed 44 people over the past 24 hours.

The strike was in Mawasi, a southern coastal area where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter after Israel’s military told them to leave other areas it was bombing in its war against Hamas.

“The rocket struck them. There were no wanted or targeted people there and there was nobody else in the street. Just the children who were killed yesterday,” said Mohammed Zanoun, a relative of the dead children.

Palestinian health authorities say Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 43,500 people, with another 10,000 believed to be dead and uncounted under the rubble.

Israel launched its offensive in response to the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed border defences and rampaged through Israeli communities killing 1,200 people and seizing around 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

On-off talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have made little progress and on Saturday a Qatari official said Doha would pull out of negotiations, opens new tab unless the two sides committed more fully.

The official said Qatar would stop trying to mediate talks until Hamas and Israel “demonstrate a sincere willingness to return to the negotiating table”.

That followed a U.S. official saying on Friday that Washington had asked Qatar to close the Hamas office in Doha after the group rejected a ceasefire proposal.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed the report as “an American attempt to send a message of pressure to the movement through the media”.