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Israeli bombing wave kills dozens in Gaza including at least 22 children, say reports Israeli bombing wave kills dozens in Gaza including at least 22 children, say reports
(about 4 hours later)
Bombardment signals new escalation after Netanyahu said Israel would ‘go in with full force to complete the operation’Bombardment signals new escalation after Netanyahu said Israel would ‘go in with full force to complete the operation’
An intense wave of Israeli bombing has reportedly killed dozens of people in Gaza, including many children, signalling a new escalation at a critical moment in regional politics. An intense wave of Israeli bombing on Wednesday killed as many as 80 people in Gaza, including many children, signalling a new escalation of violence in the devastated Palestinian territory at a critical moment in regional politics.
The exact number of deaths from the attacks was unclear, with estimates ranging from about 30 to more than 50, making it one of the highest tolls in a single morning for many weeks. The exact number of deaths from the attacks was unclear, but even the lower estimates made it one of the highest tolls in a single morning for many weeks.
The Associated Press, citing local hospitals, reported that at least 22 children were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza overnight on Tuesday and early on Wednesday. Reuters quoted local authorities and medical officials who said at least 50 died in strikes on Wednesday morning on houses in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza. Civil defence officials in Gaza said 80 had been killed, while medical officials said at least 50 people, including 22 children, were killed in strikes around the Jabaliya neighbourhood in northern Gaza alone, according to hospitals and health officials.
The intense bombardment comes as Donald Trump continues his Middle East visit and follows a brief pause in Israel’s ongoing offensive to allow the release by Hamas of the 21-year-old Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, which raised hopes for a new ceasefire. Footage of mourners in the north of the territory showed weeping women kneeling next to bodies wrapped in bloodstained white shrouds.
Late on Tuesday, the Israeli military warned of imminent airstrikes on Jabaliya and nearby Beit Lahiya after Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed militant group in Gaza allied with Hamas, fired rockets towards Israel from the neighbourhoods. Mohammed Salha, the director of al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya, said his staff had treated 52 injured casualties brought in overnight and during Wednesday morning, including a four-month-old infant with severe leg injuries.
One Israeli strike hit the European hospital complex near Khan Younis on Tuesday evening, leaving large craters in its courtyard and the road outside. Witnesses described scenes of panic at the hospital, one of the few still functioning in Gaza after 19 months of conflict. “Even after 19 months, no one gets used to such sights … We are all exhausted,” Salha said.
Amro Tabash, a local photojournalist, said: “Everyone inside the hospital – patients and wounded alike – was running in fear, some on crutches, others screaming for their children, while others were being dragged on beds.” The airstrikes were concentrated in the northern parts of Gaza, from where two rockets were launched at Israel on Tuesday. The Israeli military has issued fresh evacuation orders for the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City, alleging that Hamas has been using schools and health facilities there.
Israeli media reported that the target of the strikes on the European hospital complex was the Hamas leader, Mohammed Sinwar, brother of the group’s previous leader, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed in an Israeli operation in October 2024. Israel’s military said it hit a “Hamas command centre” beneath the hospital. The new attacks comes as the US president, Donald Trump, continues his Middle East visit and follows a brief pause in Israel’s continuing offensive to allow the release by Hamas of the 21-year-old Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, which briefly raised hopes for a new ceasefire.
Hamas denies exploiting hospitals and civilian properties for military purposes. Israel has threatened to launch a massive new offensive to “conquer” Gaza if Hamas does not release the 58 hostages it is still holding and make other concessions.
Another strike hit Nasser hospital, which the Israeli military said “eliminated significant Hamas terrorists”, among them a well-known Palestinian journalist, Hassan Aslih. Gaza’s health ministry said one other person died in the Nasser hospital strike. The stop-start negotiations to end the war are continuing in the Qatari capital, Doha, which Trump was visiting on Wednesday.
Israel had accused Aslih of participating in Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attacks. It has said Aslih documented and uploaded footage of “looting, arson and murder” during the Hamas-led incursion into Israel. Officials said Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minster, had held talks with the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has been tasked by Trump with ending the war in Gaza, on “the issue of the hostages and the missing”.
The release of Alexander, who had been in Hamas captivity since the group launched its surprise attack in October 2023, prompted celebrations in Israel. Of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, about half are believed to be dead. Witkoff later said Trump had “a really productive conversation” with Qatar’s emir about a ceasefire deal in Gaza, adding that “we are moving along and we have a good plan together”.
Speaking in Riyadh on Tuesday, Trump said more hostages would follow Alexander and added that the people of Gaza deserved a better future. Israel is under increasing pressure to end its total blockade of Gaza, which was imposed in early March. Earlier this week, UN-backed food security experts said the territory’s 2.3 million population was at critical risk of famine.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and Israeli officials have promised to increase the military pressure on Hamas. “In the very coming days, we are going in with full force to complete the operation,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying in a statement released on Tuesday. On Wednesday, António Guterres, the UN secretary general, called for “unimpeded humanitarian access” to the Palestinian territory, while Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “ever more dramatic and unjustifiable”. Anita Anand, the new Canadian foreign minister, accused Israel of using food as a political tool.
On Monday, he said the war in Gaza would be considered complete only when Hamas was destroyed. “There will be no situation where we stop the war,” he said. “A temporary ceasefire might happen, but we are going all the way.” Israeli officials have rejected the criticism, saying that Hamas routinely steals and sells aid to finance military and other operations, and arguing that the blockade was necessary to force Hamas to release the hostages it is still holding. They say Israel is working with the US on a new plan for distributing aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, involving a series of hubs in the south of Gaza that would be run by private contractors and protected by Israeli troops.
Israel imposed a blockade on the devastated Palestinian territory, cutting off all supplies including food, medicine, shelter and fuel, 10 weeks ago. Earlier this week, food security experts said Gaza faced a “critical risk of famine” after a “major deterioration” in the food security situation there. Humanitarian officials have rejected the plan as unworkable, inadequate, dangerous and potentially unlawful.
Speaking in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday, Trump said more hostages would follow Alexander, who had been in Hamas captivity since the group launched its surprise attack in October 2023, and added that the people of Gaza deserved a better future.
Netanyahu credited Alexander’s release on Monday to a combination of “our military pressure and the political pressure exerted by President Trump”. This has been rejected by Hamas, which has said it engaged in direct talks with Washington on a ceasefire in Gaza.Netanyahu credited Alexander’s release on Monday to a combination of “our military pressure and the political pressure exerted by President Trump”. This has been rejected by Hamas, which has said it engaged in direct talks with Washington on a ceasefire in Gaza.
Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to start a Gulf tour that will also take him to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Trump’s tour began in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. His next stop will be the United Arab Emirates.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians. Militants abducted 251 people. The ensuing Israeli offensive has killed at least 52,908 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the territory that is considered reliable by the UN. Israel’s offensive has obliterated vast swathes of Gaza, destroying health, sanitation and other infrastructure and displacing 90% of the population, often multiple times.
Israeli media reported that one target in a strike on a hospital in Khan Younis on Tuesday was Mohammed Sinwar, younger brother of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces last October. The military would not comment beyond saying it had targeted a Hamas “command and control centre” which it said was located beneath the European hospital.
Mohammed Sinwar is believed to be Hamas’s top military leader in Gaza. Israel has tried to assassinate him multiple times over the past decades.
Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director general of field hospitals at Gaza’s health ministry, said the strike had severely damaged the hospital’s water and sewage systems, as well as its courtyard. He added that the Israeli military hit a bulldozer brought in by hospital authorities to repair the area to allow ambulances reach the building.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, and the abduction of 251. The ensuing Israeli offensive has killed at least 52,908 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the territory that is considered reliable by the UN.