Israeli strike on Gaza refugee camp kills 31

GAZA STRIP, May 19 (AFP/AP/Reuters): Gaza's civil defence agency said Sunday that an Israeli air strike targeting a house at a refugee camp in the centre of the Palestinian territory killed at least 31 people, updating an earlier toll.
"The civil defence crew were able to recover 31 martyrs and 20 wounded from a house belonging to the Hassan family, which was targeted by the Israeli occupation forces in the Nuseirat camp," Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told journalists.
He said rescue workers were continuing to search for missing people under the rubble.
Earlier on Sunday the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital had said it had received the bodies of 20 people killed in the strike which witnesses said occurred around 3:00 am local time.
The Israeli army when contacted by AFP asked for specific coordinates of the strike.
Palestinian official news agency Wafa reported that the wounded included several children.
Fierce battles and heavy Israeli bombardments have been reported in the central Nuseirat camp since the military launched a ground operation on the southern city of Rafah in early May.
Palestinian militants and Israeli troops have also clashed in north Gaza's Jabalia camp for days now.
US security adviser, Saudi crown
prince discuss Gaza situation
President Joe Biden's national security adviser met early Sunday with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss what the kingdom described as the "semi-final" version of a wide-ranging security agreement between the countries.
The announcement by the state-run Saudi Press Agency comes as the strategic deal had been upended after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage back to the Gaza Strip.
In the time since, a punishing Israeli airstrike campaign and ground offensive there has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, endangering the security deal that had included Saudi Arabia diplomatically recognizing Israel for the first time since its founding in 1948.
Saudi state media released no images of Jake Sullivan and Prince Mohammed meeting in Dhahran, a city in the kingdom's far east that's home to its state-run oil giant, the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. known as Saudi Aramco.
"The semi-final version of the draft strategic agreements between the kingdom and the United States of America, which are almost being finalized - and what is being worked on between the two sides in the Palestinian issue to find a credible path - were discussed," the statement released after the talks said.
That included "a two-state solution that meets the aspirations and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people" and "the situation in Gaza and the need to stop the war there and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid," the statement added.
US, Iran hold talks to
avoid escalation
Two top Biden administration officials held indirect talks with Iranian counterparts this week in an effort to avoid escalating regional attacks, Axios reported on Friday.
The talks, involving President Joe Biden's Middle East adviser Brett McGurk and acting US envoy to Iran Abram Paley, marked the first round of discussions between the US and Iran since January, according to Axios.
The conversations follow Iran's missile and drone attack on Israel on April 13. In Tehran, state media quoted Iran's United Nations mission as confirming the talks, saying they were an "ongoing process".