������

At least 26 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Saturday, Al-Jazeera reported citing medical sources.

At least 14 of the deaths happened in the north of the Gaza Strip, where Israel has imposed an intensified siege accompanied by ferocious attacks, destroying the last medical facilities in the area.

Palestinian medics said that 12 civilians were killed when Israel bombed a house belonging to the Al-Ghoula family in the Shujaiya area east of Gaza.

"At about 2 a.m. (00:00 GMT) we were woken up by the sound of a huge explosion," Ahmed Ayyan, a neighbour of the Al-Ghoula family, told Reuters.

"Most of them are women and children, they are all civilians, there is no one there who shot missiles, or is from the resistance," Ayyan added.

Al-Jazeera said that over 15 people were in the house, and people were still trapped under rubble, with rescue workers struggling to remove concrete to find bodies.

Three Palestinians were killed when Israel bombed a house in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, while two more were killed in an Israeli raid north of Rafah.

At least three people were also killed when Israel bombed a car in the town of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, with further strikes targeting a tent encampment in the town.

Al-Jazeera said that 73 people were killed in Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip on Friday, with a further 77 the day before.

Israel’s deadly escalation comes amid UN condemnation of its attacks on hospitals and the continuation of ceasefire talks in Qatar.

The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, described Israel’s bombing of hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a “human rights catastrophe”, highlighting targeted attacks by Israel on them.

Israel last week destroyed north Gaza’s largest healthcare facility, the Kamal Adwan Hospital, by burning, and on Friday admitted that it had detained its director, Hussam Abu Safiya, who is believed to be in the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility where Palestinians have been subjected to horrific abuse.

Amnesty International said that Dr Abu Safiya’s continued detention was proof of its “genocidal intent” in Gaza and its attempts to “annihilate” the healthcare sector there.

Israeli forces on Saturday ordered the evacuation of two more hospitals in northern Gaza – the Indonesian hospital, which has already suffered widespread destruction, and the Al-Awda hospital, under threat of attack.

Meanwhile, Israeli mediators were sent to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatar, Egypt, and the US.

Hamas official Bassem Naim said that the group is “serious” about reaching an agreement, amid recent reports of progress in the talks.

However, Israel has continually scuppered attempts to reach an agreement, insisting on “dismantling” Hamas’s governing capabilities and maintaining a permanent presence in Gaza, at the Netzarim junction in the centre of the Strip and the Egypt-Gaza border.

The death toll from nearly 15 months of Israeli war on Gaza rose to 45,717 according to the Gaza Health Ministry, with 108,856 injured. Most of the casualties are women and children and the real death toll is believed to be much higher, because thousands of bodies are buried under rubble.