Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza City, hospitals say, as offensive expands

More than 80 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, most of them in Gaza City, local hospitals said.

Women and children were among at least 20 who died when a strike hit a building and tents sheltering displaced families near Firas market in Gaza City's central Daraj neighbourhood overnight, according to first responders.

The Israeli military said it struck two Hamas fighters and that the number of casualties did not align with its own information.

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and troops continued their advance into the heart of the city, which Israel says is the last stronghold of Hamas.

The military has said the ground offensive aims to secure the release of the hostages still held by Hamas and ensure the Palestinian armed group's "decisive defeat".

Hundreds of thousands of residents have so far fled Gaza's biggest urban centre, where a famine was confirmed last month by a UN-backed body. But hundreds of thousands more remain there in dire humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.

In a separate development, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said President Donald Trump had presented a "21-point plan for peace in the Mideast and Gaza" to a group of Arab and Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Witkoff gave no details about the plan, but said it addressed "Israeli concerns as well as the concerns of all the neighbours in the region".

"We're hopeful, and I might say even confident, that in the coming days we'll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough," he added.

Hospitals in Gaza City said on Wednesday afternoon they had received the bodies of more than 60 people killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire since midnight.

The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said a third of the fatalities were the result of an Israeli strike on a warehouse sheltering displaced people near Firas market, and that six women and nine children were among them.

International journalists, including those from the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, so it is difficult to verify the reports.

But video footage from the scene showed people removing a body wrapped in a blanket from the rubble of a destroyed building.

Mohammed Hajjaj, whose relatives were among the dead, told the AFP news agency that the site was hit by "heavy bombing" while people were asleep.

"We came and found children and women torn apart. It was a pitiful sight," he said.

Other pictures showed people mourning beside at least six bodies in white shrouds and plastic bags laid on the floor outside al-Ahli hospital.

One woman, Tala al-Deeb, said four of the bodies were her sister's husband and two children, as well as her sister's father-in-law.

When asked to comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it "struck two Hamas terrorists".

"The IDF is aware of a claim regarding casualties in the area, however the number of casualties does not align with the information held by the IDF," it added.

Elsewhere in Gaza City, witnesses reported seeing Israeli tanks in the south-western Tel al-Hawa and north-western Rimal neighbourhoods.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Tuesday that Israeli military vehicles were stationed outside al-Quds hospital in Tal al-Hawa, and that its oxygen station had been damaged and taken out of service by Israeli gunfire.

The IDF said on Wednesday that "no direct strike was conducted towards the hospital", and that the circumstances of the incident were under review.

Separately, the IDF released aerial footage that it said showed Hamas fighters of opening fire from within the compound of al-Shifa hospital in Rimal a few days ago.

Reuters cited a Hamas security official as saying that "criminal gangs" had opened fire at the hospital from outside the compound.

During a visit to Gaza City on Wednesday, the IDF's Chief of Staff Lt Gen Eyal Zamir said it was "operating in the Gaza Strip with a large number of troops, with a focus on striking Gaza City to create conditions for the release of the hostages and for Hamas' decisive defeat".

The general also stated that "most of Gaza's population has already left Gaza City, and we are moving them southward for their safety".

"I call on Gazan residents: rise up and break away from Hamas - it is responsible for your suffering. The war and the suffering will end if Hamas releases the hostages and relinquishes its weapons," he added.

Hamas's military wing warned the IDF that expanding its operations in Gaza City would endanger the 48 remaining hostages, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israeli media cited the IDF as saying that about 700,000 residents had so far evacuated to southern Gaza since the plans for the offensive were announced last month.

However, the UN and its humanitarian partners said they had only monitored 339,600 people crossing into the south as of Tuesday.

They have also previously warned that the Israeli-designated "humanitarian area" for the displaced in al-Mawasi is already overcrowded and unsafe.

Gaza City resident Thaer Saqr said he had attempted to travel south from the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood on Tuesday with his wife, children and sister.

"The tanks on the coastal road... opened fire on us, and my sister was killed," he told AFP.

He said they were now at al-Shifa hospital and would "not leave, even if they kill us all".

On Tuesday, the UN's human rights office decried the IDF's tactics in Gaza City, saying there had been a sharp increase in the number of civilians being killed in Israeli attacks and that the targeting of civilian infrastructure and destruction of homes was "making it likely that the displacement will be permanent".

It also criticised Israeli authorities, including Defence Minister Israel Katz, for threatening to destroy Gaza City if Hamas did not comply with Israel's demands.

"Such tactics and statements seem intended to inflict terror and fear amongst civilians and to force them to leave northern Gaza," it warned.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,419 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.