Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed at least 50 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The strikes targeted residential areas including buildings, displacement sites and makeshift tent camps, as well as a police station, among other locations.
One strike in northern Gaza killed at least 18 people and another killed 11, including at least one child, according to Palestinian health officials. The Israeli military said the strike on the police station targeted a militant command centre.
At least seven people were killed, including a mother and her two children, and another two children, in three strikes on the southern city of Khan Younis. Strikes in central Gaza killed six people, including two women and two children.
Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground war on 18 March. It has sealed off Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians from all food and other imports since the beginning of March to pressure Hamas to release hostages, which two dozen are still believed to be alive.
The United Nations Humanitarian Office, OCHA, has called on world leaders to exert more pressure on Israel to allow the flow of humanitarian aid and other crucial supplies to enter the enclave.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, OCHA said that Palestinians are “deprived of the necessities to survive” as it highlighted the urgency of the situation, noting that humanitarian aid operations are on the brink of total collapse, with medicine and food levels running critically low.
Israel says its blockade of Gaza is to prevent Hamas from acquiring more supplies to strengthen and regroup, as it routinely accuses the group of looting aid meant for civilians. Israel also said the move is meant to pressure Hamas into a hostage release, a tactic rights groups have slammed as a war crime and a form of collective punishment.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military has threatened on Thursday to expand operations in the Strip. “If we do not see progress in the return of the hostages, we will expand our activity into a more intense and significant operation,” said Eyal Zamir, Israeli military chief of staff.
The military chief of staff’s statement Thursday said Hamas is “responsible for starting this war” and for the “dire situation of the population in Gaza.”
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 captives, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Israel has vowed to continue bombarding Gaza until Hamas is fully destroyed.