Gaza’s civil defence agency said Wednesday that Israeli forces had killed at least 46 people, including 36 in Gaza City, which Israel’s defence minister has told residents to flee.
Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the rescue agency operating under Hamas authority, said several deaths resulted from attacks in the north of the territory, to the west of Gaza City.
Drone strikes also killed two people in Al-Zawayda and two people at a camp in Nuseirat, both in central Gaza, Bassal added.
Two aid seekers were killed by Israeli gunfire southwest of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, he said.
The Israeli army, which has pursued an offensive against Gaza City since September 16, said it had struck “a Hamas terrorist in the northern Gaza Strip”.
Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.
The strikes come as Defence Minister Israel Katz warned the military was tightening its encirclement of Gaza City, telling residents to flee south, as Hamas weighs US President Donald Trump’s plan to end nearly two years of war in the Palestinian territory.
The war was triggered by the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 Israelis, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 66,148 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
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© Agence France-Presse
