By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO, July 12 (Reuters) – Israeli attacks killed at least six people in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including a 9-year-old girl, Palestinian health officials said, as mediators held more talks to safeguard the U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Medics said Israeli gunfire directed at a tent encampment on the eastern side of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed 9-year-old Tala Abu Matar. The Israeli military said it was not aware of the incident.
An airstrike at a metal foundry in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood killed four people. Witnesses said the site was hit with three Israeli missiles.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hamas militants operating inside a weapons production facility, in what it described as a violation of the ceasefire by the Islamist faction.
Separately, the military said that since Thursday its forces had killed at least two Hamas fighters in northern Gaza who were planning attacks on its troops.
Later on Sunday, an Israeli strike at a tent encampment in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, in the south, killed at least one person and wounded several others, including children, medics said.
Israel’s military did not immediately comment.
TALKS DEADLOCKED
The ceasefire agreed in October 2025 between Israel and Hamas halted major fighting in the enclave, but it has failed to stop Israeli attacks that have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since it took effect. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants in Gaza over the same period.
The latest violence comes as Hamas leaders visited Cairo for further talks over implementing the second phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
The discussions include Hamas disarmament and Israeli army withdrawals, according to sources close to the talks, adding that there had not yet been a breakthrough.
Hamas says Israel’s violations of the ceasefire are a key obstacle to implementing the second phase of Trump’s plan.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million people, most of whom have been displaced several times, now live on a tiny strip of land along the coast, mainly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings, under Hamas control.
Hamas-led fighters killed 1,200 people during their cross-border attack into Israel on October 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies. The Gaza health ministry said more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since then.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo;Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem;Editing by Helen Popper)
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