Israel ramps up strikes on Gaza City and hospital says at least 32 are dead

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A barrage of airstrikes killed at least 32 people across Gaza City as Israel ramps up its offensive there and urges Palestinians to evacuate, medical staff reported Saturday.

The dead included 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

Israel in recent days has intensified strikes across Gaza City, destroying multiple high-rise buildings and accusing Hamas of putting surveillance equipment in them.

On Saturday the army said it struck another high-rise used by Hamas in the area of Gaza City. It has ordered residents to leave, part of an offensive aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city, which it says is Hamas’ last stronghold. Hundreds of thousands of people remain there, struggling under conditions of famine.

One of the strikes overnight and into early morning Saturday hit a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, killing a family of 10, including a mother and her three children, said health officials. The Palestinian Football Association said a player for the Al-Helal Sporting Club, Mohammed Ramez Sultan, was killed in the strikes with 14 members of his family. Images showed the strikes hitting followed by plumes of smoke.

Israel’s army didn’t immediately respond to questions about the strikes.

Hostages’ relatives rally in Israel

Meanwhile, relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand a deal to release their loved ones and criticized what they said was a counterproductive approach by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in securing a resolution.

Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, described as a “spectacular failure” Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar this week.

“President Trump said yesterday that every time there is progress in the negotiations, Netanyahu bombs someone. But it wasn’t Hamas leaders he tried to bomb — it was our chance, as families, to bring our loved ones home,” Zangauker said.

Some Palestinians are leaving Gaza City but many are stuck

In the wake of escalating hostilities and calls to evacuate the city, the number of people leaving has spiked in recent weeks, according to aid workers. However, many families remain stuck because of the cost of finding transportation and housing, while others having been displaced too many times and don’t want to move again, not trusting that anywhere in the enclave is safe.

In a message on social media Saturday, Israel’s army told the remaining Palestinians in Gaza City to leave “immediately” and move south to what it’s calling a humanitarian zone. Army spokesman Avichay Adraee said that more than a quarter of a million people had left Gaza City — from an estimated 1 million who live in the area of north Gaza around the city.

The United Nations however, put the number of people who have left at around 100,000 between mid-August and mid-September. The U.N. and aid groups have warned that displacing hundreds of thousands of people will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis. Sites in southern Gaza where Israel is telling people to go are overcrowded, according to the U.N., and it can cost money to move, which many people don’t have.

An initiative headed by the U.N. to bring temporary shelters into Gaza said more than 86,000 tents and other supplies were still awaiting clearance to enter Gaza as of last week.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that seven people including children died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 420, including 145 children, since the war began.

The bombardment Friday night across Gaza City came days after Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, intensifying its campaign against the militant group and endangering negotiations over ending the war in Gaza.

Families of the hostages still held in Gaza are pleading with Israel to halt the offensive, worried it’ll kill their relatives. There are 48 hostages still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, abducting 251 people and killing some 1,200, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,803 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says around half of those killed were women and children. Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed and around 90% of some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced.