Israel mounted its ongoing massacre in Gaza on Thursday when airstrikes killed at least 94 more Palestinians in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The death came amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the territory, where a U.S.-backed organization said it intends to begin distributing aid by the end of the month.
“Ninety-four martyrs have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn today,” civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Basal told the Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The agency had given an earlier toll of 50 dead.
Amir Selha, a 43-year-old Palestinian from north Gaza, reported “intense Israeli shelling all night.”
“Tank shells are striking around the clock and the area is packed with people and tents,” he said.
Most Gazans have been displaced at least once during 19 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel blocked all aid from entering Gaza on March 2, before resuming operations on March 18 after talks to prolong a six-week cease-fire collapsed.
Tel Aviv said the pressure aimed to force Hamas to free hostages in Gaza, most of them held since the Palestinian resistance movement’s unprecedented Oct. 7, 2023, incursion.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-supported NGO, said it would begin distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza this month after talks with Israeli officials.
It said it had asked Israel to secure distribution points in northern Gaza, and that Israel had agreed.
Evacuation orders
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday that 2,876 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18.
It said the overall death toll in Gaza since the war broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, stands at 53,010.
The Hamas incursion caused 1,218 deaths on the Israeli side, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34, the military says are dead.
Selha in Gaza said army quadcopter drones dropped leaflets in his neighbourhood early Thursday, asking residents to move south.
The U.N. estimates that 70% of Gaza is now either an Israeli-declared no-go zone or under evacuation order.
Basal said in a statement on Thursday that Israel “is employing a policy of shrinking areas and emptying populated regions to pressure and terrorise civilians.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday the military would enter Gaza “with full force” in the coming days.
Despite airstrikes, talks are still ongoing for a hostage release and a cease-fire deal.
With U.S. President Donald Trump touring Gulf countries, his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff discussed the hostage issue with Netanyahu on Wednesday.
Hamas, in a statement Thursday, accused Netanyahu of undermining hostage release and cease-fire efforts “through deliberate military escalation, showing indifference to his captives, endangering their lives.”
In the north of the occupied West Bank, meanwhile, Israel’s army chief said a manhunt was underway after an attack killed a pregnant woman.
Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said at the site of the attack: “We will use all the tools at our disposal and reach the murderers in order to hold them accountable.”
The woman, an Israeli settler who was on her way to give birth, was pronounced dead early Thursday. Her baby was saved after delivery by caesarean section, according to the Tel Aviv hospital where she was taken.
Calls for revenge
Israel’s military said in a statement Thursday that “both a physical and intelligence-based search” for the attacker was underway.
Users of Palestinian Telegram channels sharing information on West Bank checkpoints on Thursday reported many road closures in the territory’s north.
WhatsApp groups for Israeli settlers in the West Bank were rife with calls for vengeance in retaliation for the attack.
“To make sure this never happens again … we need real revenge! Erase every terror village, and every village that stays silent in the face of the murder of Jews,” one user wrote.
In the northern West Bank town of Tammun, meanwhile, an army raid early Thursday killed four Palestinians, the former mayor said.
Najeh Bani Odeh said he had been informed via a Palestinian-Israeli coordination channel that four fighters had been killed.
The army did not confirm the raid to AFP.
Bani Odeh said soldiers entered Tammun at 7 a.m. and surrounded a house in which “there were between four and five gunmen.”
“We do not know what happened yet because the army is still present, but residents in the area said the army entered the house and that the young men were martyred inside,” Bani Odeh told AFP.
An AFP reporter said military bulldozers had begun demolishing a house.
