Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 92 people, including women, children and two journalists, officials said Wednesday, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign in the strip, with the devastating war now entering its 20th month.
Two Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday targeted an area in central Gaza, killing at least 33 people and wounding 86, including several children, though the actual death toll is likely higher, according to health officials.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
The new bloodshed comes days after Israel approved a plan to intensify its operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies.
Israel is calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry out the plan. Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be implemented until after U.S. President Donald Trump wraps up his visit to the region later this month.
Wednesday’s strikes included two attacks on a crowded market area in Gaza City, health officials said.
Footage posted online reportedly showed the aftermath with men found dead, including one still seated in a chair inside a Thai restaurant used by locals as a gathering spot, and several children lying motionless on the ground and covered in blood.
2 journalists among those killed
Journalist Yahya Sobeih, who freelanced for several local outlets, was among those killed, according to Gaza’s media office. He had recently shared a photo on Instagram of his newborn daughter.
Victims of the blasts, some with severe injuries, were taken to nearby Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi told The Associated Press.
Another local journalist, Nour Abdu, was killed while covering an attack early Wednesday morning at a school turned shelter in Gaza City, the media office said. That strike killed 16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes in other areas killed at least 16 others.
And an attack Tuesday night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children. The school has been struck repeatedly since the war began.
In Bureij, an urban refugee camp, paramedics and rescuers rushed to pull people out of a blaze after a large column of smoke and fires pierced the dark skies above the school shelter.
Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of Gaza, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones.
‘Window of opportunity’ for truce amid Trump visit
Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a U.S.-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It imposed an aid blockade on March 2, drawing warnings from the United Nations that the 2.3 million population faces imminent famine.
World Central Kitchen announced in a post on X on Wednesday it has halted work in the Gaza Strip as they ran out of supplies, adding that their work cannot continue without permission from Israel for aid to enter.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will expand the offensive against Hamas after his security cabinet approved plans that may include seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid.
Netanyahu said Wednesday there is “doubt” about the survival of three hostages previously believed alive in Gaza. The statement was a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said only 21 of 24 hostages believed alive had survived.
Israel has approved a plan to intensify military operations against Hamas by seizing Gaza, establishing new bases and staying for an unspecified amount of time. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the population of Gaza will be moved to the south.
A previous version of this video contained the incorrect number of hostages.
But an Israeli defence official said on Monday that there was a “window of opportunity” for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during Trump’s visit.
Trump said on Wednesday there would be more information in the next day on a potential new proposal for a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza.
“A lot of talk going on about Gaza right now,” Trump said at the White House. “You’ll be knowing probably in the next 24 hours.”
As It Happens7:00Israel’s Gaza blockade is ‘starvation used as a weapon of war,’ says aid group
Israel’s plan to expand its Gaza offensive comes amid a months-long blockade on food, medicine, and all other essentials to the territory. Steve Cutts, interim CEO of the U.K.-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal it’s time for the international community to stand up and condemn Israel’s actions.
A senior Hamas official said on Wednesday that the Palestinian militant group would not agree to any interim truce in return for a resumption of aid for a few days, and insisted on a full ceasefire deal to end the war.
Basem Naim said Hamas would not accept “desperate attempts before Trump’s visit, through the crime of starvation, the continuation of genocide and the threat of expanding military action to achieve a partial agreement that returns some [Israeli] prisoners in exchange for a few days of food and drink.”
The war began on Oct.7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and reduced much of Gaza to ruins.
