Israeli forces bombarded cities, towns and refugee camps across Gaza, killing dozens of people in a widening air and ground offensive against Hamas that has forced thousands more to flee from homes and shelters in recent days.
The war has already killed over 20,000 Palestinians and driven around 85% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Much of northern Gaza has been levelled, and it has been largely depopulated and isolated from the rest of the territory for weeks. Many fear a similar fate awaits the south as Israel expands its offensive to most of the tiny enclave.
Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas — which is still putting up stiff resistance, even in the north — and bring back more than 100 hostages still held by the militants after their October 7 attack into southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Israeli officials have brushed off international calls for a cease-fire, saying it would amount to a victory for Hamas.
Palestinians evacuate a wounded child after an Israeli strike on Al Zawayda, central Gaza (Source: Associated Press)
ADVERTISEMENT
The United States — while providing crucial support for the offensive — has urged Israel to take greater measures to spare civilians and allow in more aid. But humanitarian workers say the amount of food, fuel and medical supplies entering is still far below what is needed, and 1 in 4 Palestinians in Gaza is starving, according to UN officials.
An Israeli airstrike on a home in the northern town of Beit Lahiyeh — one of the first targets of the ground invasion that began in October — buried at least 21 people, including women and children, according to a family member.
Bassel Kheir al-Din, a journalist with a local TV station, said the strike flattened his family house and severely damaged three neighbouring homes. He said 12 members of his family — including three children ages 2, 7 and 8 — were buried and presumed dead and that nine neighbours were missing.
In central Gaza, Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the built-up Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps, levelling buildings, residents said. Israel said this week it would expand its ground offensive into central Gaza. The Israeli military typically launches waves of airstrikes and shelling before troops and tanks move in.
A man sells shoes at a makeshift tent camp for Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip (Source: Associated Press)
A hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 25 people killed overnight, including five children and seven women, hospital records showed Thursday. Nonstop explosions could be heard throughout the night in the town where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter, with many spending cold nights sleeping on sidewalks.
“It was another night of killing and massacres,” said Saeed Moustafa, a resident of the Nuseirat camp. He said people were still crying out from the rubble of a house hit Wednesday by an airstrike.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We are unable to get them out. We hear their screams, but we don’t have equipment," he said.
Farther south, in Khan Younis, the Palestinian Red Crescent said a strike near its Al-Amal Hospital killed at least 10 people and wounded another 12. Much of the city’s population has left, but many are sheltering near Al-Amal and another hospital, hoping they will be spared from the bombardment.
A strike Thursday evening destroyed a residential building in the town of Rafah, at the southernmost end of Gaza, killing at least 18 people, doctors at the nearby Al-Kuwaiti Hospital said.
