At least 85 people were killed in Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, while Palestinians in northern Gaza report that the Israeli military launched a major land, air and sea assault on the town of Beit Lahiya in the far north-west corner of the Gaza Strip early on Friday morning, as US and Arab mediators seek a ceasefire and US President Donald Trump visits the Middle East, according to Reuters and BBC.
According to locals, the attack started with smoke bombs followed by intense artillery fire from nearby Israeli positions.
Tanks then began to advance towards western Beit Lahiya. Witnesses reported that Israeli armoured vehicles surrounded a school where hundreds of displaced civilians had taken shelter.
The Hamas-run Civil Protection Agency said that at least 50 more people had been killed after more than 85 were killed yesterday.
Most of the victims of Thursday’s attack, including women and children, were killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in airstrikes that hit homes and tents, it was reported.
The Israeli military said its air force had struck 130 targets used by militant groups in Gaza over the past two days.
Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza in a bid to eradicate Hamas in retaliation for deadly attacks on Israel carried out by the Palestinian militant group in 2023.
The health ministry said at least 15 people were killed and several others injured in an Israeli strike on a medical clinic in Jabalya, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
Hamas said in a statement that Israel was making a “desperate attempt to negotiate under cover of fire” while indirect ceasefire talks were taking place, including with Trump envoys and Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha.
Palestinians on Thursday commemorated the Nakba, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forced to flee their towns and villages in the 1948 war that created Israel.
“What we are experiencing now is even worse than the 1948 Nakba,” said Ahmed Hamad, a Palestinian in Gaza City who has had to repeatedly relocate.
“The truth is that we live in a constant state of violence and displacement. Wherever we go, we are attacked. Death is all around us.”
Palestinian medical officials say Israeli attacks have escalated since Trump began his visit to the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. Many Palestinians had hoped that he would use the visit to broker a ceasefire.
At least 80 people were killed in attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health officials said.
Indirect ceasefire talks have produced few results.
Hamas says it is ready to release all remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza in exchange for an end to the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers temporary ceasefires, saying the war can only end when Hamas is destroyed.
More than 52 900 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to local health authorities. Aid groups and international agencies say Gaza is on the brink of famine.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the administration was “concerned” about the humanitarian situation. US President Donald Trump also said on Friday that “many people there [in Gaza] are starving”.
The US-backed humanitarian organisation will start work in Gaza by the end of May, but has asked Israel to allow the UN and other organisations to resume deliveries to Palestinians until the organisation is established.
No humanitarian aid has been delivered to Gaza since the 2nd of March and World Hunger Watch has warned that half a million people in Gaza are at risk of starvation.
Hamas said it expected aid to flow into Gaza again after it released American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander on Monday, under what it said was an agreement reached with US officials.
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill dozens
