Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 44
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people on Sunday as Israel's prime minister vowed a "strong response" to a rare salvo of rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled territory.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed almost daily since Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire that had brought relative calm to the territory.
"The death toll as a result of Israeli air strikes since dawn today is at least 44, including 21 in Khan Yunis," a city in the southern Gaza Strip, civil defense agency spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.
One strike killed six people on Al-Nakheel Street in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, where a group had gathered near a bakery, Bassal said.
Three children were among the dead, he said.
A Hamas statement called the strike "a deliberate act of child killing" and a "confirmation of the sadistic and barbaric nature of the occupation and its fascist leaders".
AFP footage captured thick plumes of smoke rising from central and northern Gaza as Israeli forces bombarded areas of the besieged Palestinian territory.
A ceasefire brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar ended on March 18 as Israel resumed its offensive in response to the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
Elsewhere Israel said it shot dead "one terrorist" in the West Bank for throwing rocks, with Palestinian officials claiming it was a 14-year-old boy with US citizenship.
- 'Like a nuclear bomb' -
Gaza has since endured a new wave of relentless strikes and artillery fire, with dozens of fatalities reported on a near-daily basis.
Efforts to revive the ceasefire and secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza have so far failed.
The stalled efforts will be on the agenda during a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, set for Monday in Washington.
Netanyahu ordered a "strong response", his office said, after the Israeli military reported about 10 "projectiles" had been fired from Gaza within minutes of each other on Sunday. Most were intercepted.
The Israeli offensive since 2023 has severely weakened Hamas, but the army has recorded 10 other rockets fired at Israel over the past two weeks.
Israeli police said debris fell in Ashkelon, near the Gaza border, and paramedics said one man had been wounded.
"The prime minister instructed to deliver a strong response and approved the continuation of the intensified IDF operations in Gaza against Hamas," Netanyahu's office said.
One Israeli strike on Sunday hit the home of the Abu Issa family in Deir el-Balah, killing women and children, according to witnesses.
"There were no wanted individuals in the house — even the men were at the mosque," said Mohammad al-Azaizeh, a resident.
"They were all civilians -- children, women and girls. A missile tore through every floor, flattening the house. It felt like a nuclear bomb had hit us."
AFP footage from another strike late on Saturday in Gaza City showed scenes of devastation at a hospital, where men and women mourned bodies wrapped in white shrouds.
"We heard the explosion and rushed to check on the children," said Umm Haytham al-Salakhi through tears, as she grieved a relative at Al-Ahli Hospital.
"I kept calling out for all our children."
One sobbing man cradled a relative's body, as dozens gathered to perform funeral prayers before the victims were taken for burial.
"They struck unarmed civilians while they slept," said another resident, Mohammad Rahmi, who also lost a relative in the bombing.
Several men held the bodies of children wrapped in shrouds, while rescuers transported the wounded to the hospital, according to AFP images.
Some of the wounded, including children, were treated in the hospital's corridor as relatives gathered nearby.
- More than 50,000 dead -
Scenes from a destroyed home revealed collapsed concrete slabs and twisted metal, as children sifted through the rubble in search of salvaged belongings.
Since Israel's military resumed its offensive in Gaza last month, more than 1,330 people have been killed in the territory, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
The war began after Palestinian militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The overall death toll since the war erupted now stands at 50,695, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Source: Agence France Presse
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