Israeli strikes kill 100 in Gaza as Trump says ‘lot of people are starving’

GAZA CITY, May 16 (Agencies): Nearly 100 people, including children, have been killed in a large-scale Israeli ground, air and sea attack launched early Friday in north Gaza, the Hamas-run civil defence and residents have said.
They were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza on Friday as US President Donald Trump wrapped up his regional trip. The widespread attacks come as Trump finishes his visit to Gulf states but not Israel. There had been widespread hope that his regional trip could usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. An Israeli blockade of the territory is now in its third month.
Gaza rescuers said Israeli strikes and shelling on Friday killed 74 people in the war-battered Palestinian territory, updating a previous toll.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Basal reported "74 martyrs as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombardment across the entire Gaza Strip since last night until this moment," most of them in the north of the Palestinian territory, after the agency earlier reported more than 50 dead.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 250 people since Thursday morning, local health authorities said on Friday, one of the deadliest phases of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March and with a new ground offensive expected soon.
The air and artillery strikes were focused on the northern section of the tiny, crowded enclave, where dozens of people including women and children were killed overnight, said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Khalil al-Deqran.
Israel has intensified its bombardment and built-up armour along the border despite growing international pressure for it to resume ceasefire talks and end its blockade of Gaza, where an international hunger monitor has warned of famine.
US President Donald Trump on Friday backed aid for the Palestinians, saying people in Gaza are starving and adding that he expected "a lot of good things" in the next month.
Asked whether he supported Israeli plans to expand the war in Gaza, Trump told reporters: "I think a lot of good things are going to happen over the next month, and we're going to see. We have to help also out the Palestinians. You know, a lot of people are starving on Gaza, so we have to look at both sides."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 5 that Israel was planning an expanded and intensive offensive against Hamas as his security cabinet approved plans that could involve seizing the entire Gaza Strip and controlling aid.
More Hollywood stars join protest letter
over Gaza 'genocide'
Hollywood heavyweights Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Riz Ahmed and Guillermo del Toro have added their names to a letter condemning the film industry's silence on what it called "genocide" in Gaza, the organisers confirmed Friday.
The petition, signed by more than 370 actors and filmmakers, also denounced Israel's killing of Fatima Hassouna, the young Gaza photojournalist featured in the documentary "Put Your Soul in Your Hand and Walk", which premiered at the Cannes film festival Thursday.
The organisers of the letter said the French actor Juliette Binoche, who is chairing the jury at Cannes, also added her name to the letter, along with Rooney Mara, US indie director Jim Jarmusch and "Lupin" star Omar Sy.
Binoche had initially seemed to pull back from supporting it as the festival opened on Tuesday, instead delivering a tribute to Hassouna, who was killed with 10 members of her family the day after she learned the film would be shown at Cannes.
"She should have been here tonight with us," an emotional Binoche said at the opening ceremony.
The growing protest comes after several days of mounting bloodshed in the besieged Palestinian territory, with 120 people killed on Thursday and 50 reported dead since midnight.
"Schindler's List" star Ralph Fiennes as well as Richard Gere, Mark Ruffalo, Guy Pearce, Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem, and directors David Cronenberg, Pedro Almodovar, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Leigh said they were "ashamed" of their industry's failure to speak out about Israel's siege of Gaza in the original letter.