GAZA CITY, Palestine: At least 25 people, including women and children, were killed across the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a new wave of Israeli air strikes, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.
Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence, said in a statement quoted by AFP that “since dawn today, the occupation’s air strikes have killed 20 people and injured dozens more, including children and women across the Gaza Strip.”
In a separate statement later, the agency reported that five people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a group of civilians in eastern Rafah.
The latest escalation comes as Israel resumed its ground and aerial assault on Gaza on 18 March, ending a two-month ceasefire that had temporarily halted more than 15 months of intense attacks in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said that the military campaign would continue until all remaining hostages held by Hamas are returned.
“We are at a critical stage of the campaign, and at this point, we need patience and determination to win,” Netanyahu said in a statement, rejecting Hamas’s conditions for ending the war.
According to the health ministry in Gaza, at least 1,827 people have been killed since the Israeli offensive resumed last month.
The ministry reports that the total death toll since the war started in October 2023 has reached 51,201, the majority of them civilians. These figures are considered credible by the United Nations.
The war erupted after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,218 people, according to Israeli government data.
During the attack, 251 people were taken hostage. Israel says 58 hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.
In recent weeks, Israel has signalled plans to deepen its military presence in Gaza, with reports of intentions to establish permanent “security zones” in parts of the Gaza Strip, which is home to over 2 million Palestinians.
Israel also has blockaded Gaza for the past six weeks, again barring the entry of food, fuel, and humanitarian supplies.
Humanitarian agencies have raised urgent concerns over the deteriorating conditions.
The United Nations reports that food shortages are reaching critical levels, with most residents surviving on barely one meal per day. Thousands of children are now classified as malnourished.
Dr Hanan Balkhy, head of the World Health Organization’s eastern Mediterranean office, on Friday called on the newly appointed US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to press Israel for an end to the blockade.
“I would wish for him to go in and see the situation firsthand,” she urged.
Much of Gaza’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and food production facilities, has been destroyed during the Israeli bombardment since October 2023.
An estimated 90% of the population is now displaced, many living in makeshift tent camps and the ruins of bombed buildings.
