At least 23 people have been killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza overnight as Israel pressed ahead with its military offensive and let in minimal aid to the Strip.
Ten people were killed by strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, four in the central town of Deir al-Balah and nine in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
More than 50 civilians remain missing under rubble after an Israeli aerial attack on a residential building in the Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza’s civil defence said on Friday.
Civil defence crews described the scene as a “horrific massacre”.
“Four martyrs have been recovered, six others have been rescued, and more than 50 citizens are still missing under the rubble of a four-story home belonging to the Dardouna family in Jabaliya camp, at the Al-Jurn junction,” civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal wrote in a Telegram post on Friday.
He said search operations have ended due to the lack of heavy equipment needed to reach those still trapped under the rubble.
Civil defence crews are the main emergency service, alongside ambulance crews, in the Gaza Strip and regularly help pull the living and the dead from underneath rubble following Israeli bombardments.
Israel is facing mounting international criticism for its latest offensive, and pressure to let aid into Gaza amid a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
The Strip has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, according to the United Nations. Experts have warned that many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said Gaza‘s health system is at a breaking point as Israel’s intensified military operations continue, amid worsening mass population displacement and acute shortages of basic necessities.
Four big hospitals in Gaza have had to suspend medical services in the past week due to their proximity to incidents. WHO missions attempting to reach Al-Awda Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital were impeded, it said.
Only 19 of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals remain operational while at least 94 per cent of all hospitals are damaged or destroyed and only 12 are in a condition to provide a variety of health services, said the organisation.
On Friday, the Israeli military said 107 aid trucks belonging to the United Nations and other aid groups carrying flour, food, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs were transferred on Thursday into the Gaza Strip.
The UN is yet to confirm this figure and it is unclear how much of this aid has reached Palestinian people. The UN says about 500 aid lorries entered Gaza on average every day before the war.
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Earlier, Binyamin Netanyahu accused the leaders of France, Britain and Canada of wanting to help the Palestinian militant group Hamas after they threatened to take “concrete action” if Israel did not stop its latest offensive in Gaza.
The criticism from Mr Netanyahu, echoing similar remarks from his foreign minister Gideon Saar on Thursday, was part of a fightback by the Israeli government against the increasingly heavy international pressure on it over the war in Gaza.
In a post on X on Thursday evening, the Israeli prime minister said Hamas wanted to “destroy the Jewish state” and “annihilate the Jewish people”.
“I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others,” Mr Netanyahu said.
“I say to president Macron, prime minister Carney and prime minister Starmer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you’re on the wrong side of justice.
“Because by issuing their demand – replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not Hamas – these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power.”
Mr Netanyahu said the actions of the leaders were not “advancing peace”, but “emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever”.
The Israeli leader, whose government depends on far-right support, said Hamas had thanked French president Emmanuel Macron, UK prime minister Keir Starmer and Canada’s Mark Carney over what he said was their demand for an immediate end to the war.
The leaders’ statement on Monday did not demand an immediate end to the war, but a halt to Israel’s new military offensive on Gaza and a lifting of its restrictions on humanitarian aid.
Hamas did issue a statement welcoming the move but Mr Netanyahu gave no evidence of any direct contact with the three countries, which all describe the group as a terrorist organisation which should not have any role in running Gaza after the war.
“By issuing their demand – replete with a threat of sanctions against Israel, against Israel, not Hamas – these three leaders effectively said they want Hamas to remain in power,” Mr Netanyahu said.
“And they give them hope to establish a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state.”
The Israeli leader’s comments come after two Israeli embassy staff were killed in Washington DC. The victims, a man and a woman, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the 31-year-old suspect approached.
Israel’s foreign minister identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.
The attack has sent shock waves around the world and prompted Israeli missions to beef up security.
Elias Rodriguez (31) told police after his arrest, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” federal authorities said on Thursday, as they announced criminal charges.
