The United States, joined by Arab mediators, tried on Wednesday to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas to end the 14-month war in the Gaza Strip, where doctors said Israeli attacks killed at least 20 Palestinians overnight. .

A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said Wednesday that mediators had narrowed loopholes in most of the deal's clauses. He said Israel had introduced conditions that Hamas rejected, but did not elaborate.

On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo said an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel could be signed in the coming days.

"We need this agreement signed in Cairo between Hamas and the Israeli government because it will give us hope to end this war," Mahmoud Totah, 35, told CBC News in Khan Younis.

"The situation in Gaza is very bad. There is no light, no electricity and no food," he added.

"The Palestinian people cannot breathe."

LOOK | The Palestinians are cautiously optimistic about the talks:

As ceasefire talks resume, Palestinians in Gaza are cautiously optimistic

Talks to negotiate a cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas have resumed in Cairo, and sources close to the negotiations say a deal could be signed in the coming days. Palestinians in southern Gaza say they hope this round of talks will end the war so life can resume.

Doctors said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern city of Beit Lahiya, while six were killed in separate airstrikes in Gaza City, Nuseirat camp in the central areas and Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

In Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, medics said four people were killed in an airstrike on a house. There was no immediate comment from an Israeli military spokesman.

Israeli forces have operated in the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, as well as the nearby Jabalia camp since October, in a campaign the military said was aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.

Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out acts of "ethnic cleansing" to depopulate the northern end of the enclave to create a buffer zone. Israel denies it.

Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in its daily death toll.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it struck a number of Hamas militants who were planning an imminent attack on Israeli forces operating in Jabalia.

Later on Wednesday, Muhammad Saleh, director of Jabalia's Al-Awda Hospital, said Israeli shelling in the vicinity damaged the facility and injured seven doctors and one patient inside the hospital.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

In the Bureij camp in central Gaza, Palestinian families began to leave some districts after the army issued new evacuation orders in X and in written and audio messages to the mobile phones of some of the population there, citing new rocket launches by Palestinian militants in the area. .

LOOK | Amnesty International accuses Israel of violating international law:

Amnesty International says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

Amnesty International has accused the state of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a new report, a charge Israel vehemently denied, saying it has respected international law.

The ceasefire gains momentum

The American administration, joined by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, has done so intense efforts in recent days to advance talks before US President Joe Biden leaves office next month.

In Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with Adam Boehler, US President-elect Donald Trump's envoy for hostage matters. Trump has threatened that "all hell will break loose" if Hamas does not release its hostages by January 20, the day Trump returns to the White House.

CIA Director William Burns was due in Doha, Qatar, on Wednesday for talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to mend remaining rifts between Israel and Hamas, other sources said. informed The CIA declined to comment.

Israeli negotiators were in Doha on Monday to try to bridge gaps between Israel and Hamas in a deal Biden outlined in May.

LOOK | Gangs hijacking food deliveries in Gaza:

Gaza is collapsing into lawlessness as Hamas's power fades

More than 14 months into the war between Israel and Hamas, Gaza is descending into lawlessness and aid groups say the breakdown threatens the survival of up to two million people.

Over the past year there have been several rounds of talks, which have failed, with Israel insisting on maintaining a military presence in Gaza and Hamas refusing to release hostages until the troops withdraw.

The war in Gaza was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel says that attack killed about 1,200 people and that about 240 hostages were returned to Gaza.

Israel's campaign has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced most of the 2.3 million population and reduced much of the coastal enclave to ruins.

Speaking in Khan Younis, 20-year-old Dima Naseer said she is looking forward to the ceasefire and "a happy life and a new life".

Maram Al-Za'anin, 33, said he hoped the ceasefire would "end the suffering".

"I think Hamas should think carefully this time."