Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 32, mostly women and children

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 people, including more than a dozen women and children, local health officials said Sunday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to the United States to meet with President Trump about the war.

Israel last month ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground offensive, carrying out waves of strikes and seizing territory to pressure the militant group to accept a new deal for a truce and release of remaining hostages. It has also blocked the import of food, fuel and humanitarian aid for more than a month to the coastal territory heavily reliant on outside assistance.

“Stocks are getting low and the situation is becoming desperate,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on social media.

The latest Israeli strikes overnight into Sunday hit a tent and a house in the southern city of Khan Yunis, killing five men, five women and five children, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.

A female journalist was among those killed. “My daughter is innocent. She had no involvement, she loved journalism and adored it,” said her mother, Amal Kaskeen.

The body of one child, less than 2 years old, took up just one end of an emergency stretcher.

“Trump wants to end the Gaza issue. He is in a hurry, and that is clear from this morning,” asserted Mohammad Abdel-Hadi, cousin of a woman killed.

Israeli shelling killed at least four people in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. And the bodies of five people, including a child and three women, arrived at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah in central Gaza, according to an Associated Press journalist there.

And a strike in Gaza City hit people waiting outside a bakery and killed at least six, including three children, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government.

Israel’s military said about 10 projectiles were fired from Gaza and about five were intercepted, in the largest barrage from the territory since Israel resumed the war. Hamas’ military arm claimed responsibility. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said one man was lightly injured by shrapnel. Police said a rocket fell in the city of Ashkelon and fragments from interceptions fell in several other areas.

Dozens of Palestinians took to the streets in Jabaliya for a new round of antiwar protests. Video circulating on social media showed people marching and chanting against Hamas. Such protests, once rare, have occurred more frequently in recent weeks.

There is also anger inside Israel over the war’s resumption and its effects on the remaining hostages in Gaza. Families of hostages along with some of those recently freed from Gaza and their supporters urged Trump on Saturday to help ensure the fighting ends.

Netanyahu on Monday will meet with Trump for the second time since the president began his latest term in January. The prime minister said they would discuss the war and the new 17% tariff imposed on Israel, part of a sweeping global decision by the new U.S. administration that has shocked global markets and many American allies.

“There is a very large queue of leaders who want to do this with respect to their economies. I think it reflects the special personal connection and the special connection between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time,” Netanyahu said while wrapping up a visit to Hungary.

The U.S., a mediator in ceasefire efforts along with Egypt and Qatar, expressed support for Israel’s resumption of the war last month.

Hundreds of Palestinians since then have been killed, among them 15 medics whose bodies were recovered a week later. Israel’s military this weekend backtracked on its account of what happened in the incident, captured in part on video, that angered Red Cross and Red Crescent and U.N. officials.

Israel had initially claimed that the medics’ vehicles did not have their emergency lights on when Israeli troops opened fire on them in southern Gaza. Video found on the phone of one the slain medics showed the emergency vehicles’ lights flashing, with logos visible, as they pulled up to help an ambulance that had earlier been attacked. Their vehicles immediately came under a barrage of gunfire, leaving 15 dead.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Fifty-nine hostages are still held in Gaza — 24 believed to be alive — after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 50,695 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants but says more than half were women and children. It says an additional 115,338 people have been wounded. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said one Palestinian American teen was killed and two others were injured — one in critical condition — and asserted that Israeli settlers had shot them.

Israel’s military said it was looking into the incident in Turmus Ayya, a town near Jerusalem with a large population of Palestinian Americans.

The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with Israel’s military carrying out military operations that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands. There has been a rise in settler violence as well as Palestinian attacks on Israelis.