Gaza rescuers say children among 33 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 33 people, more than half of them children, a day after Israel announced an expanded military campaign in the besieged territory.

Israel’s military has said the expansion of its operations is aimed at “achieving all the war’s objectives” including releasing hostages and “the defeat of Hamas”.

The intensified assault comes as international concern has mounted over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza due to an Israeli aid blockade since March 2.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP on Sunday that 22 people were killed and at least 100 others wounded in a predawn attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip.

AFPTV footage showed people sifting through the wreckage of ruined shelters and rescuers treating the wounded.

At a hospital in nearby Khan Yunis city, young men mourned over the shrouded bodies of loved ones laid out on the ground outside.

In northern Gaza, Bassal said seven people were killed in a strike on a house in Jabalia, while the Al-Awda hospital in the same area reported damage.

Four more deaths were recorded in the central area of Al-Zawayda and in Khan Yunis in the south, according to Bassal.

He said that the “series of violent Israeli air strikes” across Gaza overnight and in the early morning resulted in a total of “at least 33 martyrs, more than half of whom were children”.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

‘Ceasefire, now’

The announcement of Israel’s stepped-up campaign drew international criticism on Saturday.

UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad, said he was “alarmed” at the escalation and called for “a permanent ceasefire, now”.

The summit’s final statement urged the international community “to exert pressure to end the bloodshed”.

Italy urged Israel to stop the strikes, while Germany said it was “deeply concerned”. European Council President Antonio Costa said he was “shocked by the news from Gaza”.

Israel resumed its operations in the territory on March 18, ending a two-month truce in the war.

In Tel Aviv, demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and demand it strike a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.

“Instead of bringing them all home by agreeing to the deal that is on the table, Netanyahu is dragging us into a needless political war that will lead to the death of the hostages and soldiers,” said protester Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of slain hostage Avraham Munder.

Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

Doha talks

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said Saturday that new talks on ending the war had begun in Doha “without any preconditions from either side”.

Previous negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States failed to secure a breakthrough, but the talks have been ongoing.

Netanyahu’s Likud party said he had been “in continuous contact” with the Israeli delegation and had ordered the negotiators “to remain in Doha for the time being”.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir argued against a deal, saying “now is not the time to pull back”.

Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.

Marwan Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, said that the situation there was “catastrophic” amid nearby attacks and “a severe shortage” of supplies.

On Sunday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza accused Israel of laying siege to the hospital, where it said “a state of panic and confusion is prevailing... severely hampering the provision of emergency medical care”.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The Gaza health ministry said that at least 3,131 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,272.