Sawt Falasteen - Gaza civil defence says Israeli forces kill 69 people

Israel has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, where its war on Hamas militants has created dire humanitarian conditions and displaced nearly all of the territory's population of more than two million.

Many have sought shelter in school buildings, but these have repeatedly come under Israeli attacks that the military often says target Hamas militants hiding among civilians.

In an updated toll on Thursday afternoon, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that 69 people were killed by Israeli strikes, artillery or gunfire across the territory.

They included 38 people waiting for humanitarian aid at three separate locations in central and southern Gaza and a child killed by a drone in Jabalia in the north.

Bassal said 15 people, "the majority of them children and women", were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City.

- Ceasefire pressure -

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military (IDF) said regarding that incident that it "struck a key Hamas terrorist who was operating in a Hamas command and control center in Gaza City".

"Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence," it added.

Regarding numerous other strikes across the territory on Thursday, it said it could not comment in detail without precise coordinates and times.

"In response to Hamas' barbaric attacks, the IDF is operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities," it told AFP.

It said it "follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm".

Pressure has risen for a ceasefire to allow sorely needed humanitarian aid into Gaza at scale and permit the release of hostages seized by Palestinian militants during Hamas's October 2023 attack that sparked the war.

US President Donald Trump earlier this week declared a new ceasefire push, aiming for an initial 60-day truce, which he said had Israel's backing.

But Israel's leaders held firm to their aim of crushing Hamas, even as the group said Tuesday it was discussing new proposals for a ceasefire from mediators.

- Strike hits school -

At the Gaza City school compound hit on Thursday, AFP footage showed young children wandering through the charred, bombed out building, as piles of burnt debris smouldered.

Groups of Palestinians picked through the rubble and damaged furniture that littered the floor.

Umm Yassin Abu Awda, who was among mourners who gathered at the city's Al-Shifa hospital after the strike, said: "This isn't a life. We've suffered enough."

"For two years, we've been fighting just to get a piece of bread," she told AFP.

"Either you (Israel) strike us with a nuclear bomb and end it all, or people's conscience needs to finally wake up."

Bassal of the civil defence agency reported 25 people killed while seeking aid near the Netzarim area in central Gaza, six others at another location nearby and seven in Rafah, southern Gaza, with scores of people injured.

They were the latest in a string of deadly incidents that have hit people trying to receive scarce supplies.

Across Gaza on Thursday, Bassal said artillery shelling in the northern town of Beit Lahia killed three people.

Further south, he said three people were killed in a strike that hit tents housing displaced people in the coastal Al-Mawasi area.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.

- 'Finish the job' -

Despite mounting calls at home and globally for a ceasefire, Israel's hardline National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called on Wednesday to push the offensive harder.

"Let's finish the job in Gaza. We must bring down Hamas, occupy the Gaza Strip, encourage the transfer" of Palestinians out of the territory, Ben Gvir said in a television interview.

To the minister, Israel was now "in a position to achieve" victory over Hamas, which he said would help free the remaining hostages still held in Gaza from the 2023 attacks.

"We must bring them back, but the way to bring them back is to bring down Hamas," he said.

Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that prompted the Israeli offensive resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 57,130 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

C.Hamad--SF-PST