Israeli military attacks killed at least 60 people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian doctors said, while the United States and Arab mediators press for a ceasefire agreement and US President Donald Trump visits the Middle East.
Most victims, including women and children, were killed in Khan Youis in southern Gaza in air attacks that hit houses and tents, they said.
Among the dead was local journalist Hassan Samour, who worked for Aqsa radio station run by Hamas, and was killed with 11 family members when his house was hit, according to doctors.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, who intensified their offensive in Gaza while trying to eradicate Hamas in retaliation to the deadly attacks that the Palestinian militant group performed against Israel in 2023.
Hamas said in a statement that Israel was making a “desperate attempt to negotiate under fire coverage,” as indirect ceasefire conversations occurred between Israel and Hamas, involving Trump and mediators of Qatar and Egypt in Doha.
Israel performed the last attacks on the day the Palestinians mark the Nakba, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forced to flee their national cities and villages during the 1948 War in the Middle East, which gave rise to the State of Israel.
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With most of the 2.3 million people in Gaza internally displaced, some residents of the small enclave say that suffering is greater now than at Nakba time.
“What we are experiencing now is even worse than Nakba of 1948,” said Ahmed Hamad, a Palestinian from the city of Gaza who was shifted several times.
“The truth is that we live in a constant state of violence and displacement. Wherever we go, we face attacks. Death surrounds us everywhere.”
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Palestinian health authorities say the Israeli attacks have increased since Trump started a visit to the states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, which many Palestinians expected him to use to press for a truce.
The last attacks occur after the attacks on Gaza on Wednesday that killed at least 80 people, local health officials.
