By Euronews
Published on
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has deployed all of its standing army infantry and armoured brigades to Gaza, local media reported on Saturday.
It comes as Israel intensifies its major offensive in the strip. Earlier, the military said it struck more than 100 targets in a timespan of 24 hours, claiming they were targeting infrastructure used by Hamas.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the bodies of 79 people killed in Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals. This toll that does not include hospitals in the battered north, which remain inaccessible as they are encircled by Israeli troops preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities.
Nine out of a doctor’s 10 children were among those killed on Friday, the Health Ministry confirmed.
Alaa Najjar, who is a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty when an Israeli airstrike hit her home. She had ran home to find her family’s house on fire.
Najjar’s husband was severely wounded and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition. The nine children killed in the strike ranged in age from 7 months to 12 years old. Two of the children remained under the rubble.
Local health authorities said 3,747 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel intensified its offensive on 18 March in an effort to pressure Hamas to disarm and release all of the 58 remaining Israeli hostages.
Hamas said it will only return the remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected those terms and has vowed to maintain control over Gaza and facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its Palestinian population.
Israel’s pressure on Hamas has included a blockade of Gaza and its more than 2 million residents since early March, raising widespread concerns about the critical risk of famine. This week, the first aid trucks entered the territory.
Since easing the aid blockade on Monday, Israel has said that 388 aid trucks have entered Gaza. However, Palestinian aid groups dispute this, stating that only 119 trucks have made it through the Karem Shalom crossing.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that the total death toll, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, now stands at 53,901 since 7 October 2023, when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel killing 1,200 people.
