Israeli airstrikes kill at least 35 in Central Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 35 people Sunday, hospital officials said, as fighting raged across the tiny enclave a day after Israel’s prime minister said the war will continue for “many more months,” resisting international calls for a cease-fire.
The military said Israeli forces were operating in Gaza’s secondlargest city, Khan Younis, and residents reported strikes in the central region, the latest focus of the nearly three-month air and ground war that has raised fears of a regional conflagration.
The U.S. military said Sunday that its forces shot and killed several Iran-backed Houthi rebels when they tried to attack a cargo ship in the Red Sea, an escalation in a maritime conflict linked to the war in Gaza. And an Israeli Cabinet minister suggested encouraging Gaza’s population to emigrate in remarks that could worsen tensions with Egypt and other friendly Arab states.
Israel has said it wants to destroy Hamas’ governing and military capabilities in Gaza, from where it launched its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 240 others hostage that day after breaking through Israel’s extensive border defenses, shattering its sense of security.
Israel’s unprecedented air and ground offensive has killed more than 21,800 Palestinians and wounded more than 56,000 others, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
The war has sparked a humanitarian crisis, with a quarter of Gaza residents facing starvation, according to the United Nations. Israel’s bombardments have leveled vast swaths of the territory, displacing some 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
Israel expanded its offensive to central Gaza this week, targeting a belt of dense, builtup communities that house refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and their descendants.
In the area of Zweida in central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens of others, according to witnesses. The bodies were draped in white plastic and laid out in front of a hospital, where prayers were held before burial.
“They were innocent people,” said Hussein Siam, whose relatives were among the dead. “Israeli warplanes bombarded the whole family.”
Officials from Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah said the 13 were among 35 bodies received Sunday.