An Israeli airstrike hit civilians waiting outside Project Hope’s Altayara clinic in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, including eight to ten children and two women, according to medics at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted a Hamas Nukhba fighter involved in the 7 October 2023 assault on Israel and that the incident is under review, adding it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals.” Project Hope condemned the attack as a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law.” The clinic blast formed part of a broader escalation that left about 82 people dead across the Gaza Strip during the previous 24 hours, local health authorities said. Hospitals already short of fuel and supplies reported a surge of casualties from strikes in Gaza City, Khan Younis and Al-Mawasi. The renewed violence comes as Israeli and Hamas negotiators, working through US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, debate a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce and hostage release. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the parties were “closer than we’ve been in quite a while,” though a senior Israeli official cautioned that a deal could still be one to two weeks away. Gaza’s health ministry puts the Palestinian death toll since October 2023 at more than 57,000, while Israel counts about 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage in Hamas’s initial attack.