Israel killed at least 22 children in Gaza early Wednesday in a punishing series of airstrikes across the Palestinian territory, according to health officials.
The strikes killed at least 70 people in total, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported, including almost 60 people around Jabalia in northern Gaza and 10 others in the southern city of Khan Younis.
The attacks came a day after Hamas released an Israeli-American hostage in a deal brokered by the United States, and as President Donald Trump was visiting Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was “no way” Israel would halt its war in Gaza, dimming hopes for a cease-fire.
The Israeli military refused to comment on the strikes, but had warned residents of Jabalia to evacuate late Tuesday night due to alleged Hamas infrastructure in the area, including rocket launchers.
In Jabalia, rescue workers smashed through collapsed concrete slabs using hand tools, lit only by the light of cellphone cameras, to remove bodies of some of the children who were killed.
In comments released by Netanyahu’s office Tuesday, the prime minister said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. … It means destroying Hamas.”
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion of southern Israel.
Israel’s genocidal war, in response, has killed over 52,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The offensive has also obliterated vast swathes of Gaza’s urban landscape and displaced 90% of the population, often multiple times.
‘A disgrace’
The strikes came amid hopes that Trump’s visit to the Middle East could usher in a cease-fire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
International food security experts issued a stern warning earlier this week that the Gaza Strip will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign.
French President Emmanuel Macron strongly denounced Netanyahu’s decision to block aid from entering Gaza as “a disgrace” that has caused a major humanitarian crisis.
“I say it forcefully, what Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is doing today is unacceptable,” Macron said Tuesday evening on TF1 national television.
“There’s no medicine. We can’t get the wounded out. Doctors can’t get in. What he’s doing is a disgrace. It’s a disgrace,” he added.
Macron, who visited injured Palestinians in El Arish hospital in Egypt last month, called to reopen the Gaza border to humanitarian convoys.
“Then, yes, we must fight to demilitarize Hamas, free the hostages and build a political solution,” he said.
Nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation, living at “catastrophic” levels of hunger, while 1 million others can barely get enough food, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.
Israel has banned all food, shelter, medicine and any other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks, even as it carries out waves of airstrikes and ground operations.
Gaza’s population of around 2.3 million people relies almost entirely on outside aid to survive, because Israel’s 19-month-old military campaign has wiped away most capacity to produce food inside the territory.
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