At least eight people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip, at a time when Israel sent a number of senior officials for talks on a possible ceasefire.

Today, Saturday, an Israeli attack targeted the Zainab Al-Wazir School in the Jabalia Al-Balad area in the northern Gaza Strip, killing eight civilians, including two women and two children, according to what the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service reported.

“The Israelis targeted us without any prior warning,” one mother told Al Jazeera as she searched through the rubble. “They attacked us with a missile. I don’t know where our children are. I don’t know anything about them, whether they are wounded or dead.”

Moaz Al-Kahlot, on Al-Jazeera, described the scenes at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, where dozens of wounded were transferred, as “bloody” and “dangerous,” pointing to the scarcity of medical supplies in light of the ongoing Israeli siege on northern Gaza. It has been in place for over 80 days.

Later on Saturday, the official Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported raids on various locations throughout Gaza, including an attack on a house in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, killing four Palestinians and wounding several others.

WAFA reported that Israeli warplanes also bombed a tent housing displaced families in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, killing three people.

Additional strikes reportedly killed one person near the Bureij refugee camp, also in central Gaza, and another in the southern town of Khan Yunis.

The intensified attacks came as Egypt, Qatar and the United States made renewed efforts to reach an agreement to stop fighting in Gaza and release the remaining Israeli prisoners in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

‘Difficult sticking points’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Saturday with President-elect Donald Trump’s new special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who traveled to Qatar earlier in the week.

Reuters news agency quoted Egyptian security sources as saying that Witkopf reassured the Egyptian and Qatari mediators that the United States would continue to work to reach a fair agreement to end the war soon.

After the meeting, Netanyahu sent a high-level delegation, including the head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, to Qatar to “advance” the talks, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

“There are a lot of moving parts here,” Al Jazeera’s Hamda Salhout said in a report from the Jordanian capital, Amman.

She added: “Donald Trump said he would be very aggressive in trying to reach a ceasefire if it didn’t happen before he took office… but you have to remember that there are difficult sticking points on each side.”

“The Israelis say they will not end the war, and Hamas says they want to see a comprehensive ceasefire that leads to an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

She added: “There is also the Israeli public, which is constantly demonstrating against Benjamin Netanyahu, and against the Israeli government, saying that it is not able or willing to reach an agreement fifteen months into this war.”

The families of Israeli prisoners welcomed Netanyahu’s decision to send officials, and the headquarters of the Forum for Families of Hostages and Missing Persons described it as a “historic opportunity.”

“It is impossible to survive.”

As mediators prepare for further ceasefire talks, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khudari said Palestinians under attack in Gaza are also suffering from severe food shortages, with Israel continuing to ignore UN demands to lift restrictions it imposes on supplies entering the Strip.

“We see children with empty utensils every day looking for community kitchens, and talking to families saying they are barely able to feed their children one meal a day,” said Al-Khudari, from Deir al-Balah.

She added: “It is not only the constant air strikes, but also malnutrition that is killing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Phoebe Klarup, head of Amnesty International Denmark, said Israel was committing “genocide.”

She said at the European Palestinian Network conference in Copenhagen: “When we say that Israel is committing genocide, this is not an opinion, but rather a conclusion based on a comprehensive legal analysis.”

She added: “It has become increasingly impossible to survive in the Gaza Strip… Our role as a people is to stop the genocide.”

At least 46,537 people have been killed in the Israeli war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.