Protestors wave Palestinian flags and hold placards and banners reading "Barclays stop banking on genocide, stop arming Israel" or "Barclays stop banking on apartheid, stop arming Israel" as they gather in front of the QEII Centre in Westminster, central London, on Wednesday — AFP GAZA, May 07 (AP/AFP): Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 59 people, including women and children, hospital officials said Wednesday, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a devastating war now entering its 20th month.
The strikes included one attack on Tuesday night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced Palestinians, which killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children, AP reports.
It was the fifth time since the war began that the school in central Gaza has been struck. An early morning strike on another school turned shelter in Gaza City killed 16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes on targets in other areas killed at least 16 others.
A large column of smoke rose and fires pierced the dark skies above the school shelter in Bureij, a built-up urban refugee camp. Paramedics and rescuers rushed to pull people out from the blaze.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. Israel blames Hamas for the death toll because it operates from civilian infrastructure, including schools.
The new bloodshed comes days after Israel approved a plan to intensify its operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies.
Israel is also calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry out the plan. Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be implemented until after US President Donald Trump wraps up his visit to the region later this month.
AFP footage from Khan Yunis showed wounded children crying on hospital beds while bodies covered in blankets arrived in ambulances at the city's Nasser Hospital.
"They were sleeping and the house collapsed on them," said Abir Shehab, adding her brother had been killed.
"We die of hunger, we die of war, we die of fear, we die of everything, and the whole world stands by and watches us die," she said.
An Israeli air strike on a home in the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killed three people and wounded eight, Bassal said.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by the Palestinian group's October 2023 attack.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Wednesday that at least 2,545 people have been killed since Israel resumed its campaign, bringing the war's overall toll to 52,653.
Hamas's attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
On Tuesday, Hamas said it was pointless to continue ceasefire talks with Israel, accusing it of waging a "hunger war" on Gaza.
The United Nations has warned repeatedly of the potential for a humanitarian catastrophe, with famine again looming after more than two months of aid blockade by Israel.
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