Israel’s latest attacks on Gaza killed 55 people and injured dozens, according to local health officials, as the military continued its onslaught on the besieged Palestinian territory.
Children were among at least 36 killed as Israeli forces targeted a school housing displaced people in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City on Sunday, health officials said. Images circulating on social media showed badly burned bodies lying in the destroyed school.
A father and his five children were among those killed in the attack on the school, which was struck three times while people slept, said Fahmy Awad, a top official in Gaza.
The military said it targeted a militant command and control centre inside the school that Hamas and Islamic Jihad used to gather intelligence for attacks. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in residential areas.
A senior rescue service official and a journalist were killed in separate strikes on Khan Younis in the south, Jabalia in the north and Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Reuters reported.
Journalist Hassan Majdi Abu Warda and several of his family members were killed after Israeli forces struck his house in Jabalia on Sunday.
His death took the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Israel’s war on Gaza to 220, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run strip.
A separate strike on a home in Jabalia killed 19 members of the same family, including five women and two children, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies.
Ashraf Abu Nar, a senior official in the Gazan civil emergency service, and his wife were killed in the Nuseirat airstrike.
Yaqeen Hammad, an 11-year-old social media celebrity, was also killed in the Israeli raids, Al Jazeera reported. Children account for 31 per cent of Palestinians killed in Israel’s nearly two-year-long offensive on Gaza, the health ministry said.
Meanwhile, Hamas has agreed to a proposal by US special envoy Steve Witkoff for a Gaza ceasefire, a Palestinian official close to the group told Reuters on Monday, paving the way for a possible end to the war with Israel.
The new proposal, which sees the release of 10 hostages and 70 days of truce, was received by Hamas through mediators.
“The proposal includes the release of 10 living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in two groups in return for a 70-day ceasefire and a partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,” the source said.
The proposal also sees the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, including hundreds serving lengthy prison terms.
On 18 March, Israel effectively ended a January ceasefire agreement with Hamas and renewed its military campaign in Gaza. Hamas and allied factions began firing rockets two days later.
Israel stepped up its military operations in the territory earlier this month, saying it was seeking to eliminate Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and bring back the remaining hostages who were taken in October 2023.
Gaza’s medics said Israel had taken control of around 77 per cent of the territory either through ground forces or evacuation orders and bombardments that kept residents away from their homes.
Despite mounting international pressure on Israel to lift a blockade on aid supplies in the face of warnings of looming famine, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel was determined to control the whole of Gaza.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres last week sounded the alarm over “atrocious levels of death and destruction” by Israel in Gaza while warning that Israeli forces were allowing “a teaspoon of aid” to enter.
COGAT, the Israeli defence body overseeing aid for Gaza, said 107 trucks of aid entered Sunday – about a sixth of the 600 trucks that entered the embattled territory during the ceasefire earlier this year.
Israel blocked all food, medicine and fuel from entering Gaza for almost three months before letting a small number of aid trucks enter last week after warnings about famine and pressure from some of Israel’s top allies.
"Palestinians in Gaza are enduring what may be the cruelest phase of this cruel conflict," the UN secretary-general said on Friday.
Israel’s military said in a statement that chief of staff Eyal Zamir visited soldiers in Khan Younis on Sunday and told them that "this is not an endless war" and that Hamas had lost most of its assets, including its command and control.
"We will deploy every tool at our disposal to bring the hostages home, dismantle Hamas and dismantle its rule," he was quoted as saying.
The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said in separate statements on Sunday that their fighters carried out several ambushes and attacks using bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces operating across Gaza.
Separately, Israel accused Palestinian militants of firing three projectiles from Gaza, two of which fell short within the territory and a third that was intercepted.
Israel launched a ground and air assault on Gaza after nearly 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during a Hamas raid into southern Israel in October 2023.
Israel has since killed more than 53,900 Palestinians, according to the local health authorities, left the territory in ruins and pushed nearly all of its two million residents from their homes.
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