FAMILY IS DEVASTATED

Dozens in one clan are among 90 killed in Gaza, say officials

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli air strikes on two homes in Gaza, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the UN chief warned again that nowhere is safe in the territory and that Israel’s offensive is creating “massive obstacles” to distribution of humanitarian aid.

Also Saturday, the Israeli military said troops arrested hundreds of alleged militants in Gaza over the past week and transferred more than 200 of them to Israel for further interrogation. The army said more than 700 people with alleged ties to the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have so far been sent to Israeli lockups.

The army’s statement followed earlier Palestinian reports of large-scale roundups of teenage boys and men from homes, shelters and hospitals in northern Gaza where ground troops have established firmer control. Some of the released detainees have said they were stripped to their underwear, beaten and held for days with minimal water.

Channel 13 in Israel showed new footage of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear and walking in single file, with soldiers nearby. It was not clear when the footage was taken. In response to widespread criticism, the army has said detainees are stripped to check them for weapons. It has denied abuse allegations and said those without links to militants are quickly released.

Israel declared war after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war to destroy Hamas and more than 53,000 have been wounded, according to health officials in Gaza.

The Gaza Health Ministry on Saturday evening said 201 people had been killed over the past 24 hours.

Air strikes on Friday flattened two homes, including one in Gaza City, where 76 people from the al-Mughrabi family were killed, making the attack one of the deadliest of the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense department.

Among those killed were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the UN Development Program, his wife and their five children.

Later Friday, a strike pulverized the home of Mohammed Khalifa, a local TV journalist, killing him and at least 14 others in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat, according to officials at the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital where the bodies were taken.

Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and leveling wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report this week from the United Nations and other agencies.

The Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said forces were expanding their offensive in northern and southern Gaza and troops were fighting in “complex areas” in Khan Younis.

Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas terrorists, including about 2,000 in the past three weeks, but has not presented evidence.

Despite mounting international calls for a ceasefire, Israel has vowed to keep up the fight until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all the hostages are freed. The Biden administration has shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena.

On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a ceasefire.

Following the resolution, it was not immediately clear how and when aid deliveries would accelerate. Currently, trucks enter through two crossings — Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. On Friday, fewer than 100 trucks entered the crossings, the UN said — far below the daily average of 500 before the war.

Both crossings were closed Saturday by mutual agreement among Israel, Egypt and the UN, Israeli officials said.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan criticized the Security Council resolution that called for aid into Gaza without suspending hostilities, calling it “weak” and “insufficient.”