Israeli military strikes killed at least 60 people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian medics said, as the United States and Arab mediators pushed for a ceasefire deal and U.S. President Donald Trump visited the Middle East.
Most of the victims, including women and children, were killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in airstrikes that hit homes and tents, they said.
On her gurney at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Safaa Al-Bayouk was handed two small white shrouds — the bodies of her sons Moaz and Moataz, the victims of the latest Israeli attack on Gaza.
The mother is in the hospital for treatment for her own injuries, but wanted to bid a final farewell to her sons. Surrounded by the surviving members of the family, she wailed as Moaz was placed on her lap and his face was revealed from under the white cloth. A moment passed and his brother was then presented to her in the same manner. The women attempted to hold Al-Bayouk up between her screams and tears.
“My loves… my loves.. What did they do wrong?” she screamed before both boys were taken away for burial.
The dead included local journalist Hassan Samour, who worked for the Hamas-run Aqsa radio station and was killed along with 11 family members when their home was struck, the medics said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has intensified its offensive in Gaza as it tries to eradicate Hamas in retaliation for the deadly attacks the Palestinian militant group carried out on Israel in 2023.
In a statement posted to Telegram, Hamas claimed the strikes were a “deliberate military escalation” on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “undermine mediation efforts.” The statement went on to say that Israel’s insistence on “negotiating without ceasing aggression, coupled with its disregard for mediation efforts” shows that Netanyahu sees calm as a “tactic to buy time and resume war.”
‘Worse than the Nakba’
In the aftermath of the strike, the rubble sat mixed into a pile of mangled metal beams in place of the building that once stood there. There was a blue blanket, a purple towel and a flowery dress — signs of a past life that existed in this building.
“The house was two floors, there were more than six children,” Karim Mohsen told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife at the scene. “A mother, father, their son and his entire family were erased from the civil registry.”
Israel carried out the latest strikes on the day Palestinians commemorate the “Naqba,” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forced to flee their hometowns and villages during the 1948 Middle East war that gave birth to the state of Israel.
With most of the 2.3 million people in Gaza internally displaced, some residents of the tiny enclave say suffering is greater now than at the time of the Nakba.
“What we are experiencing now is even worse than the Nakba of 1948,” said Ahmed Hamad, a Palestinian in Gaza City who has been displaced multiple times.
“The truth is, we live in a constant state of violence and displacement. Wherever we go, we face attacks. Death surrounds us everywhere.”
Escalating violence
Palestinian health officials say the Israeli attacks have escalated since Trump started a visit on Tuesday to the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that many Palestinians had hoped he would use to push for a truce.
The latest strikes follow attacks on Gaza on Wednesday that killed at least 80 people, local health officials said.
Little has come of new indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas led by Trump’s envoys and Qatar and Egyptian mediators in Doha.
Hamas says it is ready to free all the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza in return for an end to the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers interim truces, saying the war can only end once Hamas is eradicated.
Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken as hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 52,900 Palestinians, according to local health officials. It has left Gaza on the brink of famine, aid groups and international agencies say.
A U.S.-backed humanitarian organization will start work in Gaza by the end of May under an aid distribution plan, but has asked Israel to let the United Nations and others resume deliveries to Palestinians now until it is set up.
No humanitarian assistance has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation in Gaza, about a quarter of the population.
At least 70 Palestinians, including children, have been killed in a wave of Israeli military strikes across Gaza, according to local health authorities. The Israeli military had no immediate comment and said it was trying to verify the reports.
Ahmed Al-Zaytani lost his older brother and sister-in-law in the strike. The 47-year-old was trying to make sense of the strike that took the life of so many people.
“He was helping people and yet his targeting was completed. With no wrongdoing,” he said.
Back at Nasser, the white body bags were laid side by side before the prayer for the dead took place. Then, in a heavy silence that filled the air, they were carried on the shoulders of survivors, piled into cars and taken to their final resting place.
