Israeli airstrikes cause dozens of fatalities in central and southern Gaza overnight on Thursday-Friday. Concerns grow over civilian casualties and international response in the 98-day conflict. Oxfam notes a record daily death toll, impacting communities on both sides.
The bombardment killed at least 59 people and wounded dozens more across the besieged territory, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.
The Israeli army said that it had killed seven “terrorists” in a strike in Khan Yunis and a further 20 in the Maghazi area to the north.
AFP photographers witnessed black smoke billowing on Friday morning above Rafah, where Palestinians gathered beside white body bags of the latest casualties.
“Does anyone care about us? Why is everyone silent?” asked one mourner at the hospital.
Elsewhere in Rafah, resident Fayad Abu Rjeila surveyed the wreckage of a building after an Israeli strike he said had killed civilians in their homes.
“They had nothing to do with anything. People who just wanted to live,” he told AFP.
“Why did they target them?”
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 23,469 people, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry.
Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel has carried out a relentless bombardment, alongside a ground invasion, since Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7.
The charity Oxfam International said on Thursday that the daily death toll in Gaza was higher than any other major conflict this century.
Oxfam’s Sally Abi Khalil said that it is “unimaginable” that the international community stands by as the killing unfolds.
In northern Gaza, the World Health Organization said that it had reached Gaza’s largest hospital on Thursday, delivering desperately needed fuel and medical supplies.
“The team reported that Al-Shifa, previously Gaza’s premier hospital, has (partially) re-established services,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter.
With AFP
