By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) – US President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday after his visit to Doha, an Israeli official said, amid efforts to secure a hostage deal. and ceasefire in Gaza.

A second Israeli official said some progress had been made in indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to reach an agreement on Gaza.

Mediators are making renewed efforts to reach an agreement to end fighting in the enclave and release the remaining Israeli hostages held there before Trump takes office on January 20.

Witkoff arrived in Doha on Friday and met Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to a statement released by Qatar’s foreign ministry.

Egyptian and Qatari mediators have received assurances from Witkoff that the US will continue to work for a fair deal to end the war soon, Egyptian security sources said, although he did not provide any details.

On Saturday, the Palestinian civil emergency service said eight people were killed, including two women and two children, in an Israeli airstrike on a former school sheltering families in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. .

The Israeli military said the strike targeted Hamas militants operating at the school and that it was taking steps to reduce the risk of harming civilians.

Later on Saturday, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said that five people were killed and many others were wounded in two Israeli strikes. One of the two strikes killed three people in a house near the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel launched its attack on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with most of the enclave destroyed and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, with most of its population displaced.