Talks underway to free 12 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for three-day ceasefire to deliver aid JEDDAH: Thousands of Palestinian civilians trudged in a forlorn procession out of the north of Gaza on Wednesday seeking refuge from Israeli airstrikes and fierce ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. Amid the mass flight of refugees, negotiations brokered by Qatar were underway to free a dozen hostages held by Hamas in return for a three-day humanitarian halt to the Israeli bombardment. “Talks revolve around the release of 12 hostages, half of them Americans, in exchange for a three-day humanitarian pause to enable Hamas to release the hostages and to enable Egypt an extended time to deliver humanitarian aid,” a Hamas source said. “There’s disagreement around the time period and around the north of the Gaza Strip, which is witnessing extensive combat operations. Qatar is awaiting an Israeli response.” Israel has told Palestinians to leave northern Gaza, which is encircled by its armored forces or risk being trapped in the violence. But central and southern parts of the enclave also came under fire again as the war entered its second month. An airstrike that hit houses in the Nusseirat refugee camp on Wednesday morning killed 18 people. In Khan Younis, six people, including a young girl, were killed in an airstrike. “We were sitting in peace when all of a sudden an F-16 airstrike landed on a house and blew it up, the entire block, three houses next to each other,” said neighbor Mohammed Abu Daqa. “Civilians, all of them civilians. An old woman, an old man and there are others still missing under the rubble.” Thousands of other civilians remain inside the encircled north, including Gaza City’s main Al-Shifa hospital, where Umm Haitham Hejela was sheltering with her young children in an improvised tent. “The situation is getting worse day after day,” she said. “There is no food, no water. When my son goes to pick up water, he queues for three or four hours in the line. They struck bakeries, we don’t have bread.” UN officials and G7 world powers stepped up appeals for a humanitarian pause in the war to help alleviate the suffering of civilians in Gaza, where whole neighborhoods have been razed by Israeli bombardment and basic supplies are running out. “It is ... important to make Israel understand that it is against its interests to see every day the terrible image of the dramatic humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “That doesn’t help Israel in relation to global public opinion.” Palestinian officials said 10,569 people had now been killed, 40 percent of them children. The level of death and suffering was “hard to fathom,” UN health agency spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said.