At least 50 people killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

At least 50 people have been killed in new Israeli strikes in Gaza, including children, according to hospital officials.

In central Gaza, at least 10 people including two children were killed on Saturday when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Another strike killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the Maghazi refugee camp, according to the hospital.

Overnight on Friday, at least three houses were struck in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, killing at least 30 people, more than half of them women and children, said Fares Abu Hamza, head of the health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. At least 80 people were injured.

Hospital

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli strikes on Saturday also hit the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and that forces opened fire at the hospital’s building and its courtyard, causing panic among patients and medical staff.

At Awda Hospital in Jabaliya, strikes hit the building’s top floors, injuring several staff members, officials said.

A United Nations school sheltering displaced people in the west of Gaza City was also hit, killing several people, according to the Hamas-run civil defence first responders.

The strikes knocked out internet networks in northern Gaza, said Paltel, the Palestinian communications company.

Displaced

The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.

It comes amid a standoff between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with both signalling resistance to ending the war after the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar this week.

On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Mr Sinwar’s death was a painful loss but noted that Hamas carried on despite the killings of other Palestinian militant leaders before him.

“Hamas is alive and will stay alive,” he said.

Since Israel claimed Mr Sinwar’s death on Thursday and a senior Hamas political official confirmed the death on Friday, Hamas has reiterated its stance that the hostages they took from Israel a year ago will not be released until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country’s military will keep fighting until the hostages are released, and will remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming.

Mr Sinwar was the chief architect of the 2023 Hamas raid on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped another 250.

Offensive

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians but say more than half the dead are women and children.

Mr Sinwar’s killing appeared to be a chance frontline encounter with Israeli troops on Wednesday, and it could shift the dynamics of the war in Gaza.

Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas politically in Gaza, and killing Mr Sinwar was a top military priority, but Mr Netanyahu said in a Thursday night speech announcing the killing that “our war is not yet ended”.

The governments of Israel’s allies and residents of Gaza expressed hope that Mr Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war.

In Israel, families of hostages still held in Gaza demanded the government use Mr Sinwar’s killing as a way to restart negotiations to bring home their loved ones.

There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 30 of whom Israel says are dead.