At least 40 dead in Israeli bombings in Gaza over past 24 hours

New Israeli strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians on Thursday in the Gaza Strip, most of them displaced individuals who had taken refuge in makeshift camps, according to the local Civil Defense.

The Israeli military, which did not immediately comment on these strikes, has intensified its air bombings and expanded its ground operations in the besieged Gaza Strip since resuming its offensive there on March 18. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that increased military pressure would force Hamas to release the hostages taken during the attack launched by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel.

This attack triggered the war in the Palestinian territory, where Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, displaced the majority of the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants, and caused a humanitarian disaster. “At least 16 martyrs, mostly women and children, in the firing of two Israeli missiles on several tents sheltering displaced families in the al-Mawassi area,” in the Khan Younis region (south), said Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.

A father and his child were killed in a strike on their tent near Aa-Mawassi, he specified. And a strike on a tent of displaced people in Beit Lahia (north) killed seven, “mostly women and children.”

AFP images showed tents on fire in the al-Mawassi area after the strikes, and civil defense members attempting to extinguish them. Bodies were then transported in an ambulance, while civilians in the light of their mobile phones retrieved body remains in blankets.

“Everything exploded”

“We were in our tent and suddenly we saw a red light. Then the tents exploded and caught fire. Everything exploded. We ran to the sea, and from there we saw the fire spreading from one tent to another. Children were torn apart! What humanity are they talking about?” exclaimed Israa Aboulrouss, a displaced person in Mawassi. In a strike that hit a makeshift shelter in Jabalia (north), at least seven members of the same family perished, the Civil Defense said in a statement, reporting two other Palestinians killed by Israeli artillery in Gaza City's Shuja'iyya neighborhood.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which took power in 2007 in the Gaza Strip and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S., and the EU. It demands the demilitarization of the movement and for its fighters to leave the Palestinian territory bordering southern Israel, which the movement refuses.

Seeking to tighten the noose, the Israeli military announced Wednesday that it had turned 30% of the Palestinian territory “into a security perimeter.”

Despite condemnations from many countries and organizations, Israel also maintains the prohibition of humanitarian aid entry into the Gaza Strip, which it has besieged since the start of the war. Hamas denounced this prohibition, accusing Israel of using “starvation as a weapon.”

Imminent response from Hamas

Hamas is about to deliver its response to an Israeli cease-fire proposal, transmitted by the Egyptian mediator, according to two group officials. Discussions within the movement on the response to be given are expected to conclude soon, “perhaps even today,” they said.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu “gave instructions to continue efforts to advance the release of our hostages,” according to his office. The Oct. 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people abducted that day, 58 are still held in Gaza, of whom 34 have died, according to the Israeli military.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 1,691 Palestinians have been killed since March 18, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 51,065 since the start of the Israeli retaliatory offensive 18 months ago. A truce observed from January 19 to March 17 allowed the return to Israel of 33 hostages, including eight dead, in exchange for the release of approximately 1,800 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.