Scores of Palestinians who took refuge in a Gaza post were killed in a single Israeli strike

An Israeli strike on a post sheltering Gaza residents killed at least 30 Palestinians and wounded 50 others, health officials said, and the Israeli military said on Friday it targeted a senior member of Islamic Jihad.

Families displaced by the 14-month conflict fled to the post office in Nuseirat camp, and Thursday’s strike brought the death toll to 66, medics said.

Israel said it targeted the leader of Islamic Jihad in attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers and accused the militant group of exploiting public infrastructure and population as human shields for its operations.

An Israeli military statement said it was reviewing reports of the death toll. It did not identify the Islamic Jihad member by name.

Nuseirat is one of the 8 historic camps in the Gaza Strip originally for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war on the establishment of Israel. Today, it is part of a dense urban area bustling with homeless people from all over the enclave.

13 people died in strikes in the south

Earlier on Thursday, two Israeli strikes in southern Gaza killed 13 Palestinians who Gaza doctors and Hamas said were part of the army protecting aid trucks. The Israeli military said they were Hamas fighters trying to hijack the ship.

Many of those killed in the attack on Rafah and Khan Younis had ties to Hamas, according to sources close to the group.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the two airstrikes were aimed at ensuring the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and accused members of Hamas of planning to prevent aid from reaching the people of Gaza who need it.

Armed gangs have repeatedly hijacked aid trucks, and Hamas has formed a task force to deal with them. Hamas-led forces have killed more than a dozen gang members in recent months, Hamas and medical sources said.

Hamas said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 700 police officers tasked with protecting aid trucks in Gaza since the fighting began on October 7, 2023.

Gaza City evacuation alert

Separately, the Israeli military on Thursday ordered residents of several neighborhoods in central Gaza City to evacuate, saying they would respond with rockets fired into those areas. At night on Thursday, a large number of families came out in large numbers towards the city center.

Months of efforts to end the conflict by Arab mediators, Egypt and Qatar, supported by the United States, have failed to conclude an agreement between the two warring parties.

America’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in Tel Aviv on Thursday that he believes a cease-fire agreement in Gaza and the release of hostages may be imminent as Israel has indicated that it is ready and there are signs of Hamas’ withdrawal.

The war in the Palestinian territory began after gunmen led by Hamas stormed Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages back to Hamas-run Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

The Gaza Health Ministry says the Israeli military operation since then has killed more than 44,400 Palestinians and injured dozens more. Palestinian emergency officials estimate that the bodies of 10,000 people may be trapped under the rubble, bringing the death toll to more than 50,000.