KHAN YOUNIS: At least 120 people were killed in Gaza on Thursday in a punishing series of Israeli airstrikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals and health officials.
Israel’s aid blockade preceded a resumption of military operations on March 18, ending a ceasefire that had largely halted hostilities since mid-January.
The World Health Organization said the last hospital in Gaza providing cancer and cardiac care had stopped functioning after an Israeli attack on Tuesday left it “severely damaged and inaccessible.”
International food security experts issued a stern warning earlier this week that the Gaza Strip will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn’t lift its blockade and stop its military campaign.
Following the latest deaths, Hamas called on the international community to hold Israel to account for what it described as a “barbaric escalation.”
Israel says its aid stoppage and military pressure are meant to force Hamas to free the remaining hostages seized during the October 2023 attack that triggered the war.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in a 2023 intrusion into southern Israel. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 52,800 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
