'We were expecting a ceasefire': More than 100 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, civil defence says

Hamas accuses Israel of a 'desperate attempt to negotiate under cover of fire'

Palestinians run for cover as Israeli strikes hit Jabalia, in northern Gaza. AFP

Israel's army stepped up attacks on Gaza on Thursday, killing at least 100 people, rescuers said, as the US and Arab mediators pushed for a ceasefire and US President Donald Trump was visiting the Middle East.

Gaza's civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal confirmed that 107 people had been killed since dawn, including entire families. “Among them was the Shehab family in Jabalia, erased entirely from the civil registry. The father, mother, and children were all martyred,” he told The National.

He said 13 people were killed in an Israeli strike on the Al Tawba health clinic in Jabalia’s Al Fakhoura neighbourhood, in northern Gaza.

“The Israeli occupation is intensifying its bombardment and targeting of homes,” Mr Basal added. “This is directly leading to a sharp increase in the number of martyrs and injured civilians.”

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that warplanes had bombed inhabited homes and tents housing displaced people in various areas of the Gaza Strip, particularly in the southern city of Khan Younis. The strikes also caused widespread destruction to infrastructure and civilian property.

Mr Basal accused Israel of shrinking liveable spaces and forcing Palestinians out of their homes. “Thousands are now spending their nights in the streets and open air after threats to bomb schools and shelters that house the displaced.”

Civil defence crews, already working with limited resources, are now nearly paralysed, he said. “The occupation is obstructing our work. They are systematically destroying our equipment and vehicles, making it harder to reach bombing sites and save lives.”

'Humiliation and degradation'

Among those displaced is Rami Sabah, 54, who fled from the Al Salateen area in northern Gaza this morning, with around 35 members of his extended family.

“We spent the whole night under bombardment. It didn’t stop for even a minute, it came from all directions. We kept getting threats from the army, through calls and leaflets, to evacuate,” he told The National.

With nothing left of their home, the family took tents and set them up in Al Naser neighbourhood, a place also under threat. “It’s not safe here either, but we have no other options,” Rami said.

“We were expecting a ceasefire, not more displacement and bombing. We thought [US President Donald] Trump’s visit to the region might bring some kind of solution. But instead, it’s just more death. And not even a dignified death, just humiliation and degradation for us, for the women, and for the children.”

The aftermath of an Israeli strike on a clinic in Jabalia, northern Gaza. EPA

Saeb Yahya, 26, also fled in the middle of the night with his family of eight from Tel Al Zaatar in eastern Jabalia. The area had received Israeli threats of imminent destruction.

“We went to our relatives in Sheikh Radwan, but today that neighbourhood is also being threatened,” he told The National. “So, we’re just moving from one death to another. There’s no safe place. No end in sight.”

Exhaustion and desperation echoed in his words. “We’ve been living with hunger, bombing, and death for months. Now, while the world focuses on Trump’s visit, the occupation is speeding up its campaign to displace and destroy us.”

The latest strikes come as Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forced to leave their hometowns and villages during the 1948 war that gave rise to the state of Israel.

They also come a day after at least 70 Palestinians were killed in strikes across the strip, the enclave's Health Ministry said.

Palestinian health officials say Israeli attacks have escalated since Mr Trump started his visit on Tuesday to the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE that many Palestinians had hoped he would use to push for a truce.

A Hamas statement said Israel was making a “desperate attempt to negotiate under cover of fire” as indirect ceasefire talks take place between Israel and the Palestinian group, involving Mr Trump's envoys, and Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha.

“While the mediating parties are making tireless efforts to put the negotiating process back on track, the Zionist occupation is countering these efforts with military pressure on innocent civilians, through mass bombing and imposing more suffering on our people, in a desperate attempt to impose its terms under fire,” Hamas said.

The group added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “wants an endless war and does not care about the fate of his hostages”.

Maram Al Batta, 32, mother of four from Al Qarara, east of Khan Younis, is also living through the same suffering.

“What scares me the most is for my children,” she told The National. “I’m terrified something might happen to them. We’ve already endured so much suffering throughout the war, living in tents.

“We could hardly believe we finally returned to our homes and sat inside them again, only to be displaced once more, returning to humiliation, degradation, and a complete loss of dignity.”

Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza.

The subsequent military campaign has killed more than 52,900 Palestinians, Gaza health officials say. It has left much of the territory on the brink of famine, aid groups and international agencies warn.

Israel resumed military operations in Gaza in mid-March, ending a two-month ceasefire.

A US-backed humanitarian organisation will start work in Gaza by the end of this month under an aid distribution plan, but has asked Israel to let the UN and other groups resume deliveries to Palestinians now until it is set up.

No humanitarian assistance has been delivered to Gaza since March 2 and a global hunger monitor has warned 500,000 people face starvation as a result.

Civil defence official Mr Basal said the Israeli army has increased strikes on the densely inhabited areas, raising the number of casualties.

“Thousands of citizens spent the night homeless and in the open … as a result of Israeli threats to bomb schools and shelters housing thousands of displaced people,” he said.

In the occupied West Bank, Israel's military killed five Palestinians on Thursday. This came hours after a pregnant settler was killed in a shooting, as pro-settler leaders including a government minister called for Palestinian towns to be razed.

The Israeli military said it had killed five “terrorists” and arrested a sixth, after they barricaded themselves in a building in Tamoun, north-east of Nablus. This followed an exchange of gunfire and the use of shoulder-fired missiles by Israeli soldiers.

It is the latest example of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory, where the Israeli military has launched a major operation it says is to crack down on militancy. Tens of thousands have been displaced. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in months of violence that surged in the territory after the start of the war in Gaza.