Hostage held in Gaza dies as Israel and Hamas work on a cease-fire deal

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Dror Or, a 49-year-old held captive in Gaza, has died, the Hostages Families Forum said on Friday.

Or marks the 38th hostage killed, the forum said.

He and two of his children were abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri when Hamas attacked on October 7 and his wife, Yonat, was killed.

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Dror Or, a 49-year-old held captive in Gaza, has died, the Hostages Families Forum said Friday.

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His children, 17-year-old Noam and 13-year-old Alma, were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.

Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

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Dozens of people demonstrated on Thursday night outside Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, demanding a deal to release the hostages.

Meanwhile, Hamas said it would send a delegation to Cairo as soon as possible to keep working on cease-fire talks.

A leaked truce proposal hints at compromises by both sides after months of talks languishing in a stalemate.

Across the United States, tent encampments and demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war have spread across university campuses.

More than 2,000 protesters have been arrested over the past two weeks as students rally against the war’s death toll and call for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza.

The Israel-Hamas war has driven around 80 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes, caused vast destruction in several towns and cities, and pushed northern Gaza to the brink of famine.

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The death toll in Gaza has soared to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials, and the territory's entire population has been driven into a humanitarian catastrophe.

An Israeli strike on the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip killed seven people, including children, hospital officials said on Friday.

The overnight strike on the Chahine family home killed two adults and five kids whose ages ranged between seven and 16, according to a list of the names released by Abu Youssef al-Najjar Hospital.

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The strike came a day after the militant Palestinian group Hamas said it was sending a delegation to Egypt for further cease-fire talks — a new sign of progress in attempts by international mediators to hammer out an agreement between Israel and the militant group to end the war in Gaza.

Israel has regularly carried out airstrikes on Rafah since the start of the war seven months ago and has threatened to send in ground troops, saying Rafah is the last major Hamas stronghold in the coastal enclave.

Over 1 million Palestinians have sought refuge in the city on the Egyptian border.

The United States and others have urged Israel not to invade, fearing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Tuesday to launch an incursion into Rafah.