Sawt Falasteen - Gaza rescuers say 44 killed as Israel steps up offensive

Aid trickled into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, following intense international condemnation over Israel's total blockade that has sparked shortages of food and medicine.

The Israeli army stepped up its military offensive in Gaza on Saturday, saying it was aimed at "the defeat of Hamas" -- the Islamist group that runs the Palestinian territory.

Since then, scores of Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes on the besieged coastal territory, according to rescuers.

"Civil defence teams have transferred (to hospitals) at least 44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded" across Gaza since 1:00 am (2200 GMT Monday), agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Bassal said eight were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and 12 in a strike on a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Another 15 were killed in a strike on a gas station near the Nuseirat refugee camp and nine in a strike on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp.

There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military.

Israel called up tens of thousands of reservists before launching its expanded military offensive, and it sent in ground troops on Sunday.

Israel's security cabinet approved earlier this month a plan to expand its military operation in Gaza, which one official said would include the "conquest" of the territory and the displacement of its population.

Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war with Hamas.

The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 2023 attack on southern Israel.

"We will take control of all the territory of the strip," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

Netanyahu also said it was necessary for Israel to prevent a famine in Gaza for "diplomatic reasons", after his government announced it would allow limited food aid into the territory.

The Israeli leader said aid had resumed because "images of mass starvation" could harm the legitimacy of Israel's war effort.

- Aid trickles in -

On Friday, President Donald Trump of the United States, Israel's strongest ally and main arms supplier, acknowledged that "a lot of people are starving" in Gaza.

"We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of," Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi, on a regional tour that excluded Israel.

The World Health Organization warned that Gaza's "two million people are starving".

The leaders of Britain, France and Canada issued a harsh condemnation of Israel's conduct of the war, slamming its "egregious actions" in Gaza, particularly the expanded offensive and the "wholly inadequate" resumption of aid.

They warned of "concrete actions" if Israel did not ease its stepped up offensive. Netanyahu called their joint statement a "huge prize" for Hamas.

A group of 22 countries, including France, Britain, Canada, Japan and Australia said in a joint statement that Gaza's population "faces starvation" and "must receive the aid they desperately need".

Israel announced it would let limited aid into Gaza and said the first five trucks entered Monday carrying supplies "including food for babies".

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said in a statement that nine trucks had been "cleared to enter... but it is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed".

On the ground, the Israeli military issued an evacuation call to Palestinians around Khan Yunis in southern Gaza ahead of what it called an "unprecedented attack".

The civil defence agency said 91 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the territory on Monday.

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.

Gaza's health ministry said Monday at least 3,340 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,486.

Z.AbuSaud--SF-PST