Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza City, say hospitals, while the offensive develops

On Wednesday, more than 80 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip, most of them in Gaza City, local hospitals said.

Women and children were among at least 20 people who died when a strike hit a building and tents housing inappropriate families near the fir market in the central district of Daraj in Gaza City, according to the night, according to the first stakeholders.

The Israeli army said it had hit two Hamas fighters and that the number of victims did not eat with its own information.

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and troops continued their lead to the heart of the city, which, according to Israel, is the last bastion of Hamas.

The army said that the ground offensive aims to guarantee the release of the hostages still held by Hamas and to guarantee the “decisive defeat” of the Palestinian Armed Group.

So far, hundreds of thousands of residents have fled the largest urban center in Gaza, where famine was confirmed last month by a sustained body. But hundreds of thousands of others remain in disastrous humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services that collapse.

In a separate development, the American special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that President Donald Trump had a “21-point plan for peace in the Middle East and Gaza” to a group of Arab and Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Witkoff did not give any details on the plan, but said that he had responded to “Israeli concerns as well as the concerns of all neighbors in the region”.

“We hope, and I could even say confident that in the coming days, we can announce a kind of breakthrough,” he added.

The Gaza City hospitals said on Wednesday afternoon that they had received the body from more than 60 people killed by Israeli strikes and gunshots since midnight.

The Civil Defense Agency led by Hamas said that a third of deaths were the result of an Israeli strike on a warehouse of displaced people from displaced people near the fir market, and that six women and nine children were among them.

International journalists, including those of the BBC, are blocked by Israel to enter independently from Gaza, so it is difficult to check the reports.

But the video sequences of the scene have shown that people withdrew a body wrapped in a blanket of the rubble of a destroyed building.

Mohammed Hajjaj, whose relatives were one of the dead, told AFP news agency that the site had been affected by “heavy bombing” while people were sleeping.

“We came and found torn children and women. It was a pitiful show,” he said.

Other images have shown that people crying next to at least six bodies in white shrouds and plastic bags placed on the ground outside the Al-Ahli hospital.

A woman, Tala Al-Deeb, said that four of the bodies were her sister’s husband and two children, as well as her sister’s stepfather.

When asked to comment on, the Israeli Defense Forces (FDI) said that she “had struck two Hamas terrorists”.

“The FDI is aware of a complaint concerning the victims of the region, but the number of victims does not correspond to the information held by the FDI,” he added.

Elsewhere in the city of Gaza, witnesses said they had seen Israeli tanks in the southwest districts of Tel Al-Hawa and the northwest of Rimal.

The Palestinian red crescent said on Tuesday that Israeli military vehicles were stationed outside the Al-Quds hospital in Tal al-Hawa, and that its oxygen station had been damaged and removed from Israeli fire.

The FDI said on Wednesday that no direct strike was made to the hospital “and that the circumstances of the incident were being examined.

In addition, the FDIs released air images which, she said, showed Hamas fighters to open fire from the inside of Al-Shifa hospital in Rimal a few days ago.

Reuters cited a Hamas security official saying that the “criminal gangs” had opened fire at the hospital outside the enclosure.

During a visit to Gaza City on Wednesday, TSAhal’s chief of staff, LT Gen, Eyal Zamir, said that he “operated in the Gaza Strip with a large number of troops, emphasizing the strike of Gaza City to create conditions for the release of hostages and” decisive defeat of Hamas “.

The general also said that “most of the Gaza population has already left Gaza City, and we move them south for their safety”.

“I call the residents of Gazan: goes up and break with Hamas-he is responsible for your sufferings. War and suffering will end if Hamas releases the hostages and abandons its weapons,” he added.

The Hamas military wing warned that the FDIs have warned that the expansion of its operations in Gaza City would endanger the remaining 48 hostages, of which about 20 are considered alive.

The Israeli media cited the FDI saying that around 700,000 inhabitants had so far evacuated south of Gaza since the offensive plans were announced last month.

However, the UN and its humanitarian partners said that they had only watched 339,600 people crossing the South on Tuesday.

They also warned that the Israeli “humanitarian zone” for the displaced in Al-Mawasi is already overcrowded and dangerous.

Gaza City resident Thaer Saqr said he tried to travel south from the Sheikh Radwan district with his wife, children and sister.

“The tanks on the coastal road … opened fire on us and my sister was killed,” he told AFP.

He said they were now at the Al-Shifa hospital and that “would not leave, even if they all kill us”.

On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Office denounced FDI tactics in the city of Gaza, saying that there had been a sharp increase in the number of civilians killed in Israeli attacks and that targeting the civil infrastructure and the destruction of the houses “made it like the trip will be permanent”.

He also criticized the Israeli authorities, including the Minister of Defense Israel Katz, for threatening to destroy the city of Gaza if Hamas did not comply with the requests of Israel.

“Such tactics and declarations seem to be intended to inflict terrorism and fear among civilians and forced them to leave north of Gaza,” he warned.

The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,419 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Ministry of Health of the Territory.