Israeli forces kill dozens in Gaza as ceasefire talks face challenges 

Israeli forces are pounding the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least 25 Palestinians and wounding dozens more as indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas face more obstacles.

Medics in the bombarded enclave said the Israeli military targeted yet another school sheltering displaced families on Wednesday in the Gaza City suburb of Sheikh Radwan.

The strike killed three Palestinians, including a child, and injured several others.

The attack came shortly after an earlier strike targeted a residential home in Gaza City, killing a pregnant woman.

According to Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, medics were able to save the baby but “lost the mother”.

“The situation is dire on every level across the Gaza Strip,” Khoudary said.

“Elsewhere, a very famous Palestinian writer [Walaa Jumaa al-Ifranji] was killed along with her husband [Ahmed Saeed Salama] in an Israeli attack on their home south of the Nuseirat refugee camp,” in central Gaza, she added.

An Israeli attack on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza also killed two people on Wednesday.

Separately, several Palestinians were killed and wounded in al-Mawasi, an area Israel has declared a “safe zone” for people forced to flee their homes in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, where the military said it carried out a strike against a Hamas fighter.

The Israeli military routinely targets displacement camps as well as schools-turned-shelters, killing mostly women and children in its genocide since October last year, which has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians.

The military also targets hospitals and medical facilities. In the besieged north, where Israeli forces launched a renewed ground offensive more than two months ago, one of the last partially operating hospitals in Gaza has come under intense Israeli attack.

An Israeli siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital has intensified over the past few days, and Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reports that it has now been “rendered nonoperational given all the constant attacks and the use of explosive devices”.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Israeli forces have also continued to besiege two other medical facilities that are barely operational as they surround Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and Jabalia.

The Israeli army forced officials at the Indonesian Hospital to evacuate patients and staff on Tuesday and continued to operate close to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital. They also ordered the emptying of that hospital, but officials there have refused, citing risks to dozens of patients.

Palestinians have accused Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone.

The Israeli attacks came as Palestinians in Gaza saw yet another sombre Christmas.

Pope Francis denounced the “extremely grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza and appealed for the freeing of Israeli captives held by Hamas in his traditional Christmas address at the Vatican.

“May there be a ceasefire, may the hostages be released and aid be given to the people worn out by hunger and by war,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hamas and Israel traded blame on Wednesday over the failure to conclude a ceasefire agreement despite progress reported by both sides in the past days.

Hamas said Israel had set new conditions while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the group of going back on understandings already reached.

“The occupation has set new conditions related to withdrawal, ceasefire, prisoners, and the return of the displaced, which has delayed reaching the agreement that was available,” Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas said, however, that it was showing flexibility and the talks, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, were going in a serious direction.

Netanyahu blamed Hamas, saying the group “continues to lie, is reneging on understandings that have already been reached and is continuing to create difficulties in the negotiations”.

Israeli negotiators returned to Israel from Qatar on Tuesday evening for consultations about a deal after a significant week of talks, Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday.

The United States and the two Arab mediators have stepped up efforts to conclude a deal in the past two weeks.