Israeli strikes kill over 50 more Palestinians in Gaza

Israeli forces fired at hospitals in the battered north of the Palestinian enclave, and strikes killed more than 50 people, including children, in less than 24 hours, according to hospital officials and an Associated Press reporter there.

More strikes pounded Gaza on Saturday. The strikes knocked out internet networks in northern Gaza, the Palestinian communications company Paltel said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli strikes hit the upper floors of the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya, and forces opened fire at the building and courtyard, causing panic. At Al Awda hospital in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, strikes hit the top floors, injuring several staff members, the hospital said.

Three houses in Jabaliya were struck overnight Friday, killing at least 30 people, more than half of them women and children, said Fares Abu Hamza, head of the health ministry’s ambulance and emergency service. At least 80 people were injured.

In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed, including two children, when a house was hit in the town of Zawayda, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Another strike killed 11 people, all from the same family, in the Maghazi refugee camp, the hospital said. AP journalists counted the bodies from both strikes.

A United Nations school sheltering displaced people in the west of Gaza City was also hit, killing several people, according to the Hamas-run civil defense first responders.

The war has destroyed vast swaths of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people, and left them struggling to find food, water, medicine and fuel.

Sinwar’s killing could shift the dynamics of the war in Gaza. Israel’s allies and exhausted Gaza residents expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the fighting.

Agencies