Gaza City: Israel declared Gaza’s largest city a combat zone and recovered the remains of two hostages on Friday as the army launched the start of a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.
As the military announced the resumption of fighting, health officials said the death toll in Gaza has risen to 63,025, with 59 deaths reported by hospitals over the last 24 hours. Aid groups and a church sheltering people said they would stay in Gaza City, refusing to abandon the hungry and displaced.
The shift comes weeks after Israel first announced plans to widen its offensive in the city, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering while enduring famine. In recent days, the military has ramped up strikes on the city’s outskirts.
While United Nations agencies and aid groups condemned the offensive, people in Gaza City said it made little difference.
“The massacres never stopped, even during the humanitarian pauses,” resident Mohamed Aboul Hadi said in a text message from Gaza City.
“We are thrown in the streets like, what would I say? Like dogs? We are not like dogs. Dogs are better than us,” said Mohammed Maarouf standing in front of a shelter for him and his family of nine.
Israel is facing pressure at home and abroad to end its offensive in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population has been displaced at least once and the United Nations has declared a famine.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,025 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Gaza that the UN considers reliable.
