War

The Israeli army intensified bombardment of the embattled Gaza Strip on Monday, staging air strikes in the north and the south. The escalation comes amidst negotiations on a temporary 40-day ceasefire in exchange for 33 hostages.Reuters news agency reports that forty people, including a journalist, were killed in the attacks which targeted houses in Rafah and in Gaza City on Monday.Airstrikes targeted 3 houses in Rafah while Israeli warplanes bombed two houses in Gaza City, health officials said.At nightfall, a house in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza was targeted in an airstrike. Three Palestinians, including a journalist died according to Reuters, quoting medics.6 other people were killed in other central Gaza areas in separate Israeli air strikes, the officials added.Meantime two Israeli soldiers were killed Monday. They were Staff-Sergeant-Major Ido Aviv, aged 28 of Carmiel, and Staff-Sergeant-Major Kalkidan Meharim, 37, of Petach Tikva in the central Gaza Strip.They were the first deaths in three weeks. A total of 262 Israeli soldiers have died since October 7.The previous deaths came on 6 April 2024, when 4 soldiers from the Commando Brigade were killed in action in southern Gaza.