President Trump talked of turning Gaza into a “freedom zone” after multiple airstrikes hit overnight, as ITV News Senior International Correspondent John Irvine reports
More than 50 people have been killed after multiple airstrikes hit Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis overnight, in a second consecutive night of heavy bombing.
A cameraman for the Associated Press counted ten airstrikes on the city overnight into Thursday and saw numerous bodies taken to the morgue in the city’s Nasser Hospital.
The hospital’s morgue confirmed 54 people had been killed.
The dead included journalist Hasan Saman, who was working for Qatari television network Al Araby TV, the network announced on social media. He was killed along with 11 members of his family in one of the strikes in Khan Younis.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
The bombardment was the second night of heavy bombing after airstrikes overnight on Tuesday killed 70 people, including almost two dozen children, near Jabaliya, in northern Gaza.
Israeli media reported that one target in a strike on a hospital in Khan Younis on Tuesday was Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces last October.
Mohammed Sinwar is believed to be Hamas’ top military leader in Gaza. Israel has tried to assassinate him multiple times over the past decades.
The military would not comment beyond saying it had targeted a Hamas “command and control centre” which it said was located beneath the European Hospital in Al-Fukhari, near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The strikes come as US President Donald Trump is on a four-day visit to the Middle East, visiting Gulf states but not Israel. There had been widespread hope that Trump’s regional visit could usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed earlier in the week to push ahead with a promised escalation of force in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip to pursue his aim of destroying the Hamas militant group.
In comments released on Tuesday by his office, Netanyahu said Israeli forces were days away from entering Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission … It means destroying Hamas.”
International rights group Human Rights Watch said Thursday that Israel’s stated plan of seizing Gaza and displacing hundreds of thousands of people “inches closer to extermination,” and called on the international community to speak out against it.
Israel vehemently denies accusations that it is committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel has cut off vital supplies to the Gaza Strip in the conflict’s longest blockade, which is now in its third month.
International food security experts warned earlier this week that Gaza will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t let aid into the region.
Nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation while one million others can barely get enough food, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which assesses the severity of hunger crises.
French President Emmanuel Macron strongly denounced Netanyahu’s decision to block aid as “a disgrace” that has caused a major humanitarian crisis.
Netanyahu retorted that Macron was “echoing the false propaganda” of an extremist militant organisation.
The World Health Organization said it has only enough stocks to treat 500 children with acute malnutrition, a fraction of the need. Thousands of children have been diagnosed with malnutrition in recent weeks.
Israel says the blockade is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release remaining hostages and disarm. Israeli officials have said there is enough food in the territory after a surge in aid entered during the recent two-month ceasefire.
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