Israeli strikes have killed at least 44 people across Gaza, health officials said.
The onslaught continues despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, with Israel’s leader remaining defiant about the ongoing war.
Strikes in central and northern Gaza killed people in their homes in the early hours of Saturday morning, including nine from the same family in a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to staff at the Al-Awda hospital where the bodies were brought.
Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, Nasser Hospital officials said.
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The director of Shifa hospital in Gaza City said medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital”, restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated.
The attacks came hours after Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu’s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the UN General Assembly hall en masse on Friday morning as he began speaking.
International pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel’s isolation, with a growing list of countries deciding recently to recognise Palestinian statehood – something Israel rejects.
[ Netanyahu’s fiery defiance meets wall of global condemnation over GazaOpens in new window ]
Countries have been lobbying US president Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Mr Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the US is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that “will get the hostages back” and “end the war”.
Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu are scheduled to meet on Monday, and Mr Trump said on social media on Friday that “very inspired and productive discussions” and “intense negotiations” about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.
However, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they cannot afford to relocate.
The strikes on Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City’s Tufah area, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to the Al-Ahly Hospital. Four other people were killed when an air strike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa hospital.
Six other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to Nasser and Al Awda hospitals where the bodies were brought.
Hospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by air strikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply.
Many patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.
On Friday, aid group Médecins Sans Frontières said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City amid an intensified Israeli offensive.
The group said Israeli tanks were less than half a mile from its healthcare facilities and the escalating attacks have created an “unacceptable level of risk” for its staff.
Meanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since September 12th and has increasingly rejected UN requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, according to the Gaza health ministry.
It does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but UN agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7th, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals. – AP
