Most of the bombardment hit northern Gaza, including Beit Lahiya and the densely packed Jabalia refugee camp, Reuters reported on Friday. Witnesses described entire residential blocks pulverized in night-long barrages that sent families scrambling through debris to retrieve bodies.
The Israel Defense Forces said its warplanes struck more than 150 “terror targets,” including anti-tank positions and command centers, and that troops were massing along the frontier for what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called an “expanded and intensive” operation to destroy Hamas.
Netanyahu’s security cabinet has approved plans that could include re-occupying the whole of Gaza unless Hamas accepts the U.S.-backed proposal by the end of Trump’s now-concluded regional tour. Arab mediators in Doha have asked for more time, but negotiators reported no breakthrough.
Jerusalem and Washington have floated a plan to channel supplies through private contractors, an idea rejected by the United Nations.
Israel imposed a near-total aid blockade in mid-March, which Defense Minister Israel Katz last month called a “main pressure lever” against Hamas.
Humanitarian agencies say the 10-week chokehold has pushed Gaza’s 2.1 million residents toward famine; a U.N.-backed assessment this week said the whole population faces “critical risk.”
Israel denies shortages, blaming “Hamas looting and selling aid.”
Trump: ‘A lot of people are starving’
Speaking to reporters at the end of a Middle East tour, U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged growing concern over Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.
“A lot of people are starving in Gaza, so we have to look at both sides,” he said, adding that the US needed to “help out the Palestinians,” but offered no details.
Washington remains Israel’s main arms supplier but has increasingly pressed for a halt in fighting and unimpeded aid deliveries. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday the United States was “troubled” by the situation and continued to back Qatari-mediated ceasefire talks.
Israel’s campaign, launched after Hamas killed 1,218 people and abducted 251 on Oct 7 2023, has left at least 53,000 Palestinians dead, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly the entire population.
Fifty‑seven hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of them presumed dead, Israel says.
(jh)
Source: Reuters, AFP, BBC