JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday instructed a senior delegation to depart to the Qatari capital Doha to continue advancing a deal with Hamas to release the Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said the directive followed a situation assessment Netanyahu held Saturday evening with Defense Minister Israel Katz and US negotiators from "both the outgoing and incoming administrations."

The Israeli delegation includes David Barnea, head of the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency, and Ronen Bar, chief of the Shin Bet internal security service.

Israel and Hamas have been engaged in a deadly conflict after Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostages.

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Indirect peace talks between Israel and Hamas have been on and off in the past months, with Qatar, Egypt, and the United States as the main mediators.

Also on Saturday, at least 20 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli airstrikes on various areas of the Gaza Strip.

Eight Palestinians, including two children and two women, were killed, and more than 30 people, including 19 children, were wounded in an Israeli bombing on a school housing displaced people in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Xinhua.

In another attack, two Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house in the Shujaiya neighborhood east of Gaza City, according to Basal.

Three others, including a woman and a child, were killed and 10 wounded in a bombing that targeted an apartment in a residential building in the al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City.

In the east of Gaza City, an airstrike on a gathering of citizens in al-Nafaq Street killed four people, said Basal.

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Three were killed by Israeli warplanes bombing a tent in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Basal added.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a press statement that its air force planes attacked Hamas "terrorists" who operated inside a command and control complex in an area previously used as a school in Jabalia.

Adraee added that Hamas members used the complex to plan and carry out attacks against Israel.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has risen to 46,537, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday. 

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Meanwhile, four Israeli soldiers were killed on Saturday in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

Israel's state-owned Kan TV News reported that three fighters of the Nahal Brigade and a military driver were killed by an explosive device while riding in a military vehicle in the city of Beit Hanoun.

According to the army, an officer and a soldier from the brigade were also seriously injured in the incident.

Kan added that the incident occurred while it was raining and visibility was relatively limited, adding that the IDF is investigating whether militants fired at the fighters simultaneously.