Separate attacks targeting a restaurant and a school in Gaza City kill dozens.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 61 people since dawn, targeting civilians in crowded places, as its more than two-month blockade of the besieged and bombarded enclave has caused acute food shortages, accelerating the starvation of the Palestinian population.
A reconnaissance drone strike targeted an area near the Thai and Palmyra restaurants in al-Wehda Street, in Gaza City. Two missiles were fired at two locations at the same time, 100 metres apart, one inside a restaurant and another at the intersection, killing at least 17 people.
Reporting from Gaza City, media’s Hani Mahmoud said the Israeli air strike targeted one of the few places where Palestinians are able to get a meal.
“The tables and chairs are all thrown around and blood stains the ground as a result of severe bleeding [due to the attack],” Mahmoud said among a crowd of residents and street vendors examining the destruction after the attack.
At the site of another attack that took place at the same time at a nearby intersection, Mahmoud explained that people were on the ground, “soaked in blood and shredded into pieces”.
More relentless Israeli strikes were scattered across Gaza on Wednesday, with 13 people killed and several more injured, in a strike targeting al-Karama School in the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City.
Also in the north, another three people were killed and several were wounded in a strike on a house in Jabalia.
Another eight people, including a father, his children and cousins, were killed in Khan Younis city in the south, including five in a strike on one home.
Mahmoud said earlier that Palestinians were “scrambling for cover” as air strikes and explosions struck residential buildings and evacuation centres across Gaza.
“We have confirmed that a farmer was killed in the eastern part of Khan Younis, in Abasan, as he was trying to harvest what he managed to plant in the past couple of months, making up for the lack of food,” Mahmoud said.
“This is one of the elements that we have been seeing quite visibly. Not only are they suffering on a daily basis because of the enforced starvation and dehydration, they [also] try to plant their own food, but they are deprived, and their abilities to do so are [thwarted] by the ongoing attacks,” he added.
The intensified attacks have been compounded by an Israeli blockade on essential supplies since March 2, leaving the enclave deprived of fuel items and food, including a worsening shortage of flour. Aid groups have said food supplies are close to total depletion.
A mother of six sheltering at a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) facility in Gaza told the agency they had run out of all types of food, with only bread available.
‘Scrambling for cover’
“The State of Israel must lift the siege,” UNRWA wrote on X on Wednesday.
“There must be a concerted international effort to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new unseen level,” it added.
On Wednesday morning, Egypt and Qatar, who both mediated the first ceasefire deal alongside the United States, reaffirmed their commitment to an agreement aimed at ending the “unprecedented humanitarian crisis and alleviating the suffering of civilians by fostering the necessary conditions for achieving a comprehensive ceasefire”.
“The two countries emphasise that attempts to sow discord among brotherly nations – whether through the casting of doubt, distortion, or media escalation – will not succeed, nor will they deter the two nations from continuing their joint efforts to end the war and the resulting humanitarian catastrophe,” a joint statement read, adding that the countries were working alongside the US to reach a deal.
While Israel announced that a new, more intense military offensive would begin in Gaza unless a ceasefire deal was signed, Hamas said the talks were pointless.
“There is no sense in engaging in talks or considering new ceasefire proposals as long as the hunger war and extermination war continue in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas official Basem Naim told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
American Dollar Exchange Rate