CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli military strikes killed at least 35 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, most of them at an aid site operated by the U.S-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in central Gaza, local health officials said.
Medical officials at Shifa and Al-Quds Hospitals said at least 25 people were killed as they approached the aid site near the former settlement of Netzarim, and dozens were wounded.
Ten other people were killed in other Israeli military strikes in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, they added.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
On Tuesday, when Gaza health officials said 17 people were killed near another GHF aid site in Rafah in southern Gaza, the army said it fired warning shots to distance “suspects” who were approaching the troops and posed a threat.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday there had been “significant progress” in efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, but that it was “too soon” to raise hopes that a deal would be reached.
Despite efforts by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar to restore a ceasefire in Gaza, neither Israel nor Hamas has shown willingness to back down on core demands, with each side blaming the other for the failure to reach a deal.
Two Hamas sources told Reuters they did not know about any new ceasefire offers.
The war erupted after Hamas-led militants took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in an October 7, 2023, attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
Israel’s military campaign has since killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza, and flattened much of the coastal enclave.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Michael Perry)
Comments