Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza killed dozens of people, while advancing tanks in Gaza City forced residents to flee as Israel stepped up its offensive against Hamas.
The airstrike hit the tents of displaced families outside a school in the town of Abassan, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. At least 29 people were killed, most of them women and children, Palestinian health officials said.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the report.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said 60 Palestinians were killed and dozens more wounded in Israeli attacks on areas in central Gaza on Tuesday.
Residents reported that Israeli tanks entering the Tel al-Hawa, Shejaia and Sabra neighborhoods in Gaza City shelled streets and buildings, forcing residents to flee their homes.
This was followed by Israeli military orders published on social media to evacuate several districts in the east and west of Gaza City, including these neighborhoods.
“We hold the occupation and the US government responsible for the horrific massacres of civilians,” Thawabta said in a statement.
On the front lines of Gaza City, the armed wings of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad said their fighters fought Israeli forces with machine guns, mortar shell fire and anti-tank missiles, killing or wounding Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military did not comment on the number of casualties, but said its soldiers were involved in close combat with insurgents, incapacitated more than 150 fighters in the past week and destroyed buildings and explosive devices.
The latest fighting came as senior U.S. officials were in the region to push for a ceasefire following Hamas concessions last week.
But Israel’s new campaign jeopardizes the talks at a crucial moment and could throw the negotiations “back to square one,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said.
Videos on social media showed families crammed into donkey carts and the backs of trucks loaded with mattresses and other belongings as they moved through the streets of Gaza to flee the areas where Israel had issued an evacuation order.
“Gaza City is being wiped out. That’s what’s happening. Israel is forcing us to leave our homes under fire,” Um Tamer, a mother of seven, told Reuters via a chat app.
She said it was the seventh time her family had fled their home in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, one of Israel’s first targets when the war began in October.
“We can’t take it anymore. Enough of death and humiliation. End the war now,” she said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said all its medical clinics in Gaza City were out of service due to Israeli orders that have driven thousands of people west toward the Mediterranean and south.
Across Gaza, more than 40 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza City in the north, al-Bureij, Deir al-Balah and al-Nuseirat in the center of the Gaza Strip, and Rafah in the south, according to medics on Tuesday.
The total number of Palestinian deaths during the nine-month Israeli military offensive has reached 38,243, health authorities in the Gaza Strip said in their latest update.
The war broke out when Hamas-led militants entered southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli sources.
Gaza residents’ hopes for an end to fighting were revived after Hamas accepted a key part of a US ceasefire proposal last week.
US-backed mediators from Qatar and Egypt have stepped up their efforts this week and talks will resume in Doha on Wednesday, Egyptian state media reported.