Israel’s relentless attacks by air and on the ground add to the rising death toll of Palestinians – with Gaza crippled by an aid blockage to the Strip and residents waned to evacuate stricken areas
Israeli strikes have killed at least a dozen people in the Gaza Strip, as Israel sent more ground troops into the Palestinian territory to ramp up its offensive against Hamas. At least 17 people, some from the same family, were killed after an air strike hit the southern city of Khan Younis, according to hospital staff.
Hours later, people were still searching through the rubble, looking for survivors. The attack follows days of Israeli strikes after the ceasefire was shattered with Israeli attacks on March 18, which have since killed at least 100 people, as it intensifies operations, intended to pressure Hamas to release its hostages.
On Friday, Israel said it had begun ground activity in northern Gaza. Israel’s military had issued sweeping evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza before the expected ground operations. The UN humanitarian office said around 280,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel ended the ceasefire with Hamas last month.
READ MORE: Latest Israeli airstrikes kill 100 Palestinians – including children at school
Israel has vowed to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor across it. To raise the pressure on Hamas, Israel has imposed a month-long blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle – a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime.
Israel said earlier this week that enough food had entered Gaza during a six-week truce to sustain the territory’s roughly two million Palestinians for a long time. Hamas says it will only release the remaining 59 hostages – 24 of whom are believed to be alive – in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pull-out from Gaza. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory.
The pre-dawn strike on Friday hit a three-storey building. It injured at least 16 people from the same family. Reporters saw bodies being carried out in blankets, while others searched for people trapped under the rubble and collected charred remains. Ismail Al-Aqqad, whose brother died in the strike, as well as his brother’s family, said: “We don’t know how to collect them and how to bury them. We don’t know whose remains these are. They were burned and dismembered.”
On Thursday, more than 30 bodies, including women and children, were taken to hospitals in and around Khan Younis. Israel said it had killed a top Hamas commander in a strike in Lebanon’s coastal city of Sidon.
Hassan Farhat was a commander of Hamas’ western area in Lebanon and was responsible for numerous attacks against Israel, including one in February 2024, which killed an Israeli soldier and injured others. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals.
Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as part of Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not say whether those killed are civilians or combatants.
The ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The war has left most of Gaza in ruins, and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.