Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 44 people on Thursday, including 25 in Gaza City, as bombardments intensified ahead of a planned offensive.
Nearly two years into the war, Israel has deployed more troops around Gaza City, home to almost a million people, where the United Nations has declared famine.
An Israeli military official said the offensive aimed at capturing the city could displace about one million Palestinians.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported that an air strike on a tent sheltering a displaced family in Tel al-Hawa killed five people, including three children. AFP footage showed survivors clearing belongings from damaged tents.
At Al-Shifa Hospital, bodies wrapped in white shrouds filled the morgue, while grieving relatives wept over loved ones.
Further south in Nuseirat camp, another strike killed seven, including three children. A local resident said: “The entire tent was destroyed, along with everyone inside.”
The conflict began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,219 people. Israel’s subsequent assault has killed at least 64,231 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry figures deemed reliable by the UN.