CAIRO (AP) — The bodies of 79 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, Gaza ‘s Health Ministry said Saturday — a toll that doesn’t include hospitals in the battered north that it said are now inaccessible.
The dead over the past day in Israel’s renewed military offensive included nine of a doctor’s 10 children, horrified colleagues and the Health Ministry said.
Alaa Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her family’s house on fire, Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital’s pediatric department, told The Associated Press.
Najjar’s husband was severely wounded and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after Friday’s strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Farra said.
The dead children ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old. Khalil Al-Dokran, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, told the AP that two of the children remained under the rubble.
Israel’s military in a statement said it struck suspects operating from a structure next to its forces, and described the area of Khan Younis as a “dangerous war zone.” It said it had evacuated civilians from the area, and “the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.”
Earlier Saturday, a statement said Israel’s air force struck over 100 targets throughout Gaza over the past day.
The Health Ministry said the new deaths brought the war’s toll to 53,901 since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the 19 months of fighting. The ministry said 3,747 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed the war on March 18 in an effort to pressure Hamas to accept different ceasefire terms. Its count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel’s pressure on Hamas has included a blockade of Gaza and its over 2 million people since early March. This week, the first small number of aid trucks entered the territory and began reaching Palestinians since the blockade began. But they were far fewer than the about 600 trucks a day that had been entering during the ceasefire.
Warnings of famine by food security experts, and images of desperate Palestinians jostling for bowls of food at the ever-shrinking number of charity kitchens, led Israel’s allies to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow some aid to return.
Netanyahu’s government has sought a new aid delivery and distribution system by a newly established U.S.-backed group, but the United Nations and partners have rejected it, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon and violates humanitarian principles.
Israel may now be changing its approach to let aid groups remain in charge of non-food assistance, according to a letter obtained by the AP. Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid but the U.N. and aid groups deny there is significant diversion.
Hospitals in Gaza are again reporting attacks and other Israeli pressure.
The Health Ministry said 11 security personnel have been trapped at the European Hospital in southern Gaza following heavy gunfire and airstrikes since at least Tuesday. Dr. Saleh Hams, director of the nursing department, said patients were evacuated after an Israeli strike on May 13. Hams said the security staff stayed behind to protect from looting, and that it was the only hospital in Gaza offering neurosurgery, cardiac care and cancer treatment.
Israel said it will continue to strike Gaza until Hamas releases all of the 58 remaining Israeli hostages and disarms. Fewer than half of the hostages are believed to be alive since the Oct. 7 attack, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others.
Hamas has said it will only return the remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from the territory. Netanyahu has rejected those terms and has vowed to maintain control over Gaza and facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its Palestinian population.
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AlJoud reported from Beirut.
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