US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has landed in Tel Aviv to try to seal a ceasefire deal after months of negotiations.

His arrival follows Israeli strikes across Gaza that have killed 28 people, including young quintuplets.

In his 10th trip to the region since war began last October, the top US diplomat will meet senior Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday (local time), according to a senior State Department official.

After Israel, Blinken will continue onto Egypt as part of his Middle East tour.

The US and fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar said they were closing in on a deal after two days of talks in Doha, with American and Israeli officials expressing cautious optimism.

But Hamas has signalled resistance to what it called new demands by Israel.

The evolving proposal calls for a three-phase process in which Hamas would release all hostages abducted during its October 7 attack, which triggered the deadliest war fought between Israelis and Palestinians.

In exchange, Israel would withdraw its forces from Gaza and release Palestinian prisoners.

The war has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, displaced the vast majority of the territory’s 2.3 million residents and led experts to warn of famine and the outbreak of diseases like polio.

“It is as if we live a primitive life,” said Sanaa Akela, a displaced Palestinian in the central town of Deir al-Balah, where sewage flooded some streets.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted around 250.

Of those, some 110 are still believed to be in Gaza, though Israeli authorities say around a third are dead.

More than 100 hostages were released in November during a week-long ceasefire.

Quintuplets among dead

The latest Israeli bombardment included a strike on a home in Deir al-Balah that killed a woman and her six children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

An Associated Press reporter there counted the bodies.

Mohammed Awad Khatab, the children’s grandfather, said his daughter, a teacher, was with her husband and their children when their house was struck.

He said the children were as young as 18 months and included quintuplets.

“The six children have become body parts. They were placed in a single bag,” he said.

“What did they do? Did they kill any of the Jews? … Will this provide security to Israel?”

Another strike east of Deir al-Balah killed at least four people, according to an AP journalist at the hospital.

A strike in the northern town of Jabaliya hit two apartments, killing two men, a woman and her daughter, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Another two strikes in central Gaza killed nine people, according to Al-Awda Hospital.

Late Saturday, a strike near the southern city of Khan Younis killed four people from the same family, including two women, according to Nasser Hospital.

Israel says it targets only militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the group conceals fighters, weapons, tunnels and rockets in residential areas.

But the Israeli bombardment has wiped out entire extended families and orphaned thousands of children.

Mediation efforts gained new urgency after the targeted killing of two top militants last month, both attributed to Israel, brought vows of revenge from Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, raising fears of an all-out war across the Middle East.

An American official said Friday that mediators preparing to implement the latest ceasefire proposal, and Netanyahu’s office expressed “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached.

An Israeli delegation was travelling to Cairo on Sunday for further talks.

Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting there were areas where Israel could be flexible and unspecified areas where it wouldn’t be.

“We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give,” he said.

Hamas, however, has cast doubt on whether an agreement is near, saying the latest proposal diverged significantly from a previous iteration it had accepted in principle.

Hamas has rejected Israel’s demands for a lasting military presence along the Gaza-Egypt border and a line bisecting Gaza where Israeli forces would search Palestinians returning to their homes.

Israel says both are needed to prevent militants from rearming and returning to the north.

Israel showed flexibility on retreating from the border corridor, and a meeting between Egyptian and Israeli military officials was scheduled for the week ahead to agree on a withdrawal mechanism, according to two Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the private negotiations.

In Lebanon, three UN peacekeepers were lightly wounded when an explosion struck their vehicle near the southern village of Yarin.

The peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, said the incident was under investigation and did not give details.

UK diplomat quits

A British diplomat has resigned from the Foreign Office as he believes the department “may be complicit in war crimes” for continuing to allow arms sales to Israel.

Mark Smith, listed as a second secretary in the British embassy in Ireland, wrote in a resignation letter to colleagues that was posted online that members of the Israeli government and military had expressed “open genocidal intent”.

Smith also said that it was “deeply troubling” that the department had “disregarded” his concerns on the illegality of continued arms sales.

“It is with sadness that I resign after a long career in the diplomatic service, however I can no longer carry out my duties in the knowledge that this department may be complicit in war crimes,” he wrote.

Smith said he was a former penholder on the arms export licensing assessment in the Middle East and North African Department, experience he said made him a “subject matter expert” on arms sales policy.

“Each day we witness clear and unquestionable examples of war crimes and breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza perpetuated by the state of Israel,” he said.

“Senior members of the Israeli government and military have expressed open genocidal intent, Israeli soldiers take videos deliberately burning, destroying and looting civilian property and openly admit to the rape and torture of prisoners.”

He said there was no justification for Britain’s continued arms sales to Israel and said he had raised this at every level in the organisation, including through an official whistle-blowing investigation.

He received nothing more than “thank you, we have noted your concern”.

“Ministers claim the UK has one of the most ‘robust and transparent’ arms export licensing regimes in the world. However, this is the opposite of the truth,” Smith said.

“I hope that we can look back on history and be proud,” he finished his letter.

While in opposition the now Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged the Foreign Office to publish its formal legal advice as to whether Israel was complying with international humanitarian law.

-AAP