Deadly violence persists in Gaza despite mediators' hopes for a truce

As mediators expressed optimism for an imminent cease-fire deal, violence raged on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, where an Israeli airstrike killed at least 18 people, all from the same family.

The attack came days after the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza announced the death toll surpassed 40,000 in the 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war, and just hours after officials from the United States, Egypt and Qatar wrapped up two days of cease-fire talks with a message of hope that a deal could be reached.

A joint statement from the three mediators said a proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas was presented and they expected to work out the details of how to implement the possible deal next week in Cairo.

The mediation efforts were aimed not just at securing the release of scores of Israeli hostages and stopping the fighting that has devastated Gaza, where aid and health workers fear a possible polio outbreak. It is also aimed at tamping down regional tensions that have threatened to explode into a broader war amid fears that Iran and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon would attack Israel in retaliation for the killings of top militant leaders.

The airstrike in Gaza early Saturday morning hit a house and an adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance of the town of Zawaida, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital counted the fatalities as they were brought in.

Among those killed was a wholesaler identified as Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children ages 2 to 22, the children’s grandmother, and