GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, May  14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Gaza rescuers
said at least 80 people were killed in Israeli bombardment across the
Palestinian territory on Wednesday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu spoke to US envoy Steve Witkoff about the release of hostages.

Negotiations for the release of the captives held in Gaza have been
ongoing, with the latest talks taking place in the Qatari capital Doha, where
US President Donald Trump was visiting on Wednesday.

Netanyahu's office said the premier had discussed with Witkoff and his
negotiating team "the issue of the hostages and the missing".

Witkoff later said Trump had "a really productive conversation" with the
Qatari emir about a Gaza deal, adding that "we are moving along and we have a
good plan together".

Fighting meanwhile raged in Gaza, where civil defence official Mohammed
al-Mughayyir told AFP 80 people had been killed by Israeli bombardment since
dawn, including 59 in the north.

AFP footage from the aftermath of a strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza,
showed mounds of rubble and twisted metal from collapsed buildings.

Palestinians, including young children, picked through the debris in search of
belongings.

Footage of mourners in northern Gaza showed women in tears as they kneeled
next to bodies wrapped in bloodstained white shrouds.

"It's a nine-month-old baby. What did he do?" one of them cried out.

Hasan Moqbel, a Palestinian who lost relatives, told AFP: "There are no
homes fit for living. I have no shelter, no food, no water. Those who don't die
from air strikes die from hunger, and those who don't die from hunger die from
lack of medicine."

Israel's military on Wednesday urged residents in part of a Gaza City
neighbourhood to evacuate, warning that its forces would "attack the area with
intense force".

- 'Unjustifiable' -

From the occupied West Bank, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said
Wednesday he favoured a "ceasefire at any price" in Gaza, accusing Netanyahu of
wanting to continue the war "for his own reasons".

Mohammad Awad, an emergency doctor in northern Gaza's Indonesian Hospital,
told AFP that supply shortages meant his department could not properly handle
the flow of wounded from the Jabalia strike.

"There are not enough beds, no medicine, and no means for surgical or
medical treatment, which leaves doctors unable to save many of the injured who
are dying due to lack of care", he said.

Awad added that "the bodies of the martyrs are lying on the ground in the
hospital corridors after the morgue reached full capacity. The situation is
catastrophic in every sense of the word."

Israel imposed an aid blockade on the Gaza Strip on March 2 after talks to
prolong a January 19 ceasefire broke down.

The resulting shortages of food and medicine have aggravated an already
dire situation in the Palestinian territory, although Israel has dismissed UN
warnings that a potential famine looms.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for "the
immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, unimpeded humanitarian
access and an immediate cessation of hostilities," in Gaza.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the humanitarian situation in
Gaza was "ever more dramatic and unjustifiable".

A US-led initiative for aid distribution under Israeli military security
drew international criticism as it appears to sideline the United Nations and
existing aid organisations, and would overhaul current humanitarian structures
in Gaza.

- 'Full force' -

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said the plan would make "aid
conditional on forced displacement" and vetting of the population.

It added in a statement that Israel was creating "conditions for the
eradication of Palestinian lives in Gaza".

Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18, with officials
later talking of retaining a long-term presence in the Palestinian territory.

Following a short pause in air strikes during the release of US-Israeli
hostage Edan Alexander on Monday, Israel resumed its pounding of Gaza.

Netanyahu said on Monday that the military would enter Gaza "with full
force" in the coming days.

He added that his government was working to find countries willing to take
in Gaza's population.

The Israeli government approved plans to expand the offensive earlier this
month, and spoke of the "conquest" of Gaza.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas's October 2023 attack, 57 remain in
Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side,
mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 52,928 people in Gaza,
mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory's Hamas-run health
ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.