Israeli Strikes Kill 59 Across Gaza    05/07 06:31

   

   DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at 
least 59 people, including women and children, hospital officials said 
Wednesday, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a 
devastating war now entering its 20th month.

   The strikes included one attack on Tuesday night on a school sheltering 
hundreds of displaced Palestinians, which killed 27 people, officials from the 
Al-Aqsa Hospital said, including nine women and three children. It was the 
fifth time since the war began that the school in central Gaza has been struck.

   An early morning strike on another school turned shelter in Gaza City killed 
16 people, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes on targets 
in other areas killed at least 16 others.

   A large column of smoke rose and fires pierced the dark skies above the 
school shelter in Bureij, a built-up urban refugee camp. Paramedics and 
rescuers rushed to pull people out from the blaze.

   The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes. Israel blames 
Hamas for the death toll because it operates from civilian infrastructure, 
including schools.

   The new bloodshed comes days after Israel approved a plan to intensify its 
operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include seizing Gaza, 
holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to 
southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private 
security companies.

   Israel is also calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry out 
the plan. Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be implemented 
until after U.S. President Donald Trump wraps up his visit to the region later 
this month.

   Any escalation of fighting would likely drive up the death toll. And with 
Israel already controlling some 50% of Gaza, increasing its hold on the 
territory, for an indefinite amount of time, could open up the potential for a 
military occupation, which would raise questions about how Israel plans to have 
the territory governed, especially at a time when it is considering how to 
implement Trump's vision to take over Gaza.

   Trump jars Israelis with remark on hostage figures

   The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 
1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel's offensive has killed more 
than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to 
Palestinian health officials. The officials do not distinguish between 
combatants and civilians in their count.

   Trump on Tuesday stunned many in Israel when he declared that only 21 of the 
59 hostages remaining in Gaza are still alive. Israel insists that figure 
stands at 24, although an Israeli official said there was "serious concern" for 
the lives of three captives. The official said there has been no sign of life 
from those three, whom the official did not identify. He said that until there 
is evidence proving otherwise, the three are considered to be alive. The 
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details 
related to the war, said the families of the captives were updated on those 
developments.

   The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing the families 
of the captives, demanded from Israel's government that if there is "new 
information being kept from us, give it to us immediately." It also called for 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the war in Gaza until all 
hostages are returned. "This is the most urgent and important national 
mission," it said on a post on X.

   Since Israel ended a ceasefire with the Hamas militant group in mid-March, 
it has unleashed fierce strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds and has 
captured swaths of territory. Before the truce ended, Israel halted all 
humanitarian aid into the territory, including food, fuel and water, setting 
off what is believed to the be the worst humanitarian crisis in 19 months of 
war.

   Key interlocutors Qatar and Egypt said Wednesday that mediation efforts were 
"ongoing and consistent." But Israel and Hamas remain far apart on how they see 
the war ending. Israel says it won't end the war until Hamas' governing and 
military capabilities are dismantled, something it has failed to do in 19 
months of war. Hamas says it is prepared to release all of the hostages for an 
end to the war and a long term truce with Israel.

   The US-Houthi deal does not appear to cover Israel

   Against the backdrop of the plans to intensify the campaign in Gaza, 
fighting has also escalated between Israel and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in 
Yemen.

   The Houthis fired a ballistic missile earlier this week that landed on the 
grounds of Israel's main international airport. Israel responded with a series 
of airstrikes over two days, whose targets included the airport in Yemen's 
capital, Sanaa.

   The Houthis have been striking Israel and targets in a main Red Sea shipping 
route since the war began in solidarity with the Palestinians. On Tuesday, 
Trump said the U.S. would halt a nearly two-monthlong campaign against the 
Houthis in Yemen, after the rebel group agreed not to target U.S. ships.

   Israel does not appear to be covered by the U.S.-Houthi agreement.

   The Israeli official said the deal came as a surprise to Israel and that it 
was concerned by it because of what it meant for the continuation of 
hostilities between it and the Houthis.