At least 48 people, including 22 children, have been killed in a series of overnight Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, according to medical sources. The Indonesian Hospital in Jabaliya reported the deaths as part of the heaviest bombardment in recent days, following a warning from the Israeli military to evacuate northern Gaza late on Tuesday.
The strikes come amid escalating violence that began in 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched a major cross-border assault, killing 1,200 people in southern Israel. Israel has since responded with a relentless offensive, resulting in over 52,800 Palestinian deaths, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the military campaign would continue, stating, “There is no way” Israel would halt its operation. “It means destroying Hamas,” he said, adding that a ground offensive into Gaza is imminent.
The Israeli military has refused to comment on the latest strikes, but said earlier that its targets included Hamas rocket launchers and command centres embedded within civilian areas, a tactic the group has long been accused of using.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, who is on a visit to Saudi Arabia, has backed Israel’s right to defend itself, calling Hamas a “terrorist organisation” and urging it to release all hostages.
The ongoing conflict has devastated the densely populated Gaza Strip, displacing nearly 90 per cent of its population and levelling entire neighbourhoods.
