Israel has sent several senior officials to negotiate a possible ceasefire after an attack on a school housing displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza killed at least eight people.

Israel attacked the Zainab Wazir school in the Jabaliya Balad district of northern Gaza on Saturday, killing eight civilians, including two women and two children, according to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service.

“The Israelis targeted us without any prior warning,” one mother told Al Jazeera as she searched through the rubble. “They hit us with missiles. I don’t know where our children are. I don’t know anything about them, whether they are injured or dead.”

Al Jazeera’s Mos Karut described the scenes at Gaza City’s Al Ahli hospital as “bloody” and “horrible”, noting the lack of medical supplies amid Israel’s ongoing siege of northern Gaza, which has left dozens of injured injured. sent to the hospital. It has been implemented for more than 80 days.

Late on Saturday, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported attacks across Gaza, including an attack on a house in Gaza City’s Daraj neighborhood that killed four Palestinians and injured many others.

Israeli fighter jets also bombed a tent sheltering displaced families in Deir al-Balah in the center of the enclave, killing three people, Wafa reported.

Attacks near the Burij refugee camp, also in central Gaza, reportedly killed one person and another in the southern town of Khan Younis.

The intensified attacks come as Egypt, Qatar and the United States renew their efforts to reach a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and release remaining Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

‘Troublesome issue’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Saturday with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who visited Qatar earlier this week.

Reuters quoted Egyptian security sources as saying that Witkov assured Egyptian and Qatari mediators that the United States would continue to work to reach a fair agreement to end the war as soon as possible.

A statement from Netanyahu’s office said that after the meeting, Netanyahu sent a high-level delegation, including the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, to Qatar to “advance” the negotiations.

“There are a lot of moving parts here,” Al Jazeera’s Hamda Salhut said, reporting from the Jordanian capital, Amman.

“Donald Trump has said he will be very aggressive in trying to get a ceasefire if it doesn’t happen before he takes office… but you have to remember there are tough sticking points on both sides,” she said.

“The Israelis say they will not end the war, and Hamas says they want to see a comprehensive ceasefire that would end the war and withdraw Israeli forces.

“The Israeli public has also been demonstrating against Benjamin Netanyahu and against the Israeli government, saying he is neither able nor willing to reach an agreement fifteen months into this war,” she said.

Families of Israeli captives welcomed Netanyahu’s decision to send officials, with the headquarters of the Forum for Hostages and Missing Families calling it a “historic opportunity.”

“Impossible to live”

As mediators prepare for more ceasefire talks, Al Jazeera’s Hind al-Kudari says Palestinians under attack in Gaza also face severe food shortages while Israel continues to ignore UN calls to lift restrictions on access to the Strip. Material restriction requirements.

“Every day we see children looking for the community kitchen with empty pots and talk to families who say they can barely feed their children a meal every day,” said Kudari from Deir al-Balah.

“Not only the continued air strikes but also malnutrition are killing Palestinians in Gaza,” she said.

Vibe Klarup, director of Amnesty International in Denmark, said Israel was committing “genocide”.

“When we say that Israel is committing genocide, it is not an opinion but a conclusion based on a legitimate, thorough analysis,” she told the European Palestine Network conference in Copenhagen.

“Survival in the Gaza Strip is increasingly impossible… Our role as a people is to stop the genocide,” she added.

According to Palestinian health authorities, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 46,537 people since October 7, 2023.