Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill 56 people, hospital says

Israeli air strikes have killed at least 56 Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip, a local hospital says.

The strikes reportedly hit homes and tents sheltering displaced families in the city of Khan Younis overnight.

Local journalists said the corridors of Nasser hospital were crowded with casualties, who included women and children, and that its mortuary was full.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

But it has been intensifying its bombing of what it has said are Hamas fighters and infrastructure ahead of a planned expansion of its ground offensive in Gaza.

Meanwhile, new Israeli evacuation orders have caused panic among residents of a crowded area of Gaza City, in the north.

The Israeli military said a hospital, and a university and several schools sheltering displaced people in the Rimal neighbourhood had become “terrorist strongholds” and that it would soon attack them with “intense force”.

Separately, a US-backed organisation said it would start work in Gaza within two weeks as part of a new heavily criticised US-Israeli aid distribution plan.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it had asked Israel to let the UN and others resume deliveries until it was set up.

Israel has not allowed any aid or other supplies into Gaza for 10 weeks, and aid agencies have warned of mass starvation among the 2.1 million population.

Israel imposed the blockade on 2 March and resumed its offensive against Hamas two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release its remaining 58 hostages, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 52,928 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 2,799 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.