At least 59 Palestinians killed as Israel escalates Gaza bombardment

At least 59 people, including children, have been killed in a barrage of Israeli attacks across the besieged Gaza Strip, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Rescue teams and medics in the enclave said at least 12 people belonging to the same family were among those killed on Thursday when their home in northern Gaza’s Jabalia was targeted.Six members of another family – a couple and their four children – were killed when an air strike levelled their home in Gaza City, the civil defence said in a statement.

Ahmed Arar, a first responder in Gaza City, said there were “large quantities of body parts and remains”, including those of many children, after the attack.

“There are only hands, legs, and heads. They are all severed and torn,” Arar told Al Jazeera.

Another 10 people were killed and several others wounded in a strike on a former police station in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, according to a statement from the Indonesian Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

“Everyone started running and screaming, not knowing what to do from the horror and severity of the bombing,” 23-year-old Abdel Qader Sabah, from Jabalia, said of the attack that hit the station that is located near a market.

Israel’s military said it struck what it described as a Hamas “command and control centre” in the Jabalia area, without clarifying if it was targeting the police station. The army has previously used similar justifications in attacks that hit hospitals and numerous shelters housing displaced Palestinian families.At least 26 people were killed in other Israeli attacks across the territory, according to medics and the civil defence agency.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said there is “an ongoing surge in the rate of Israeli attacks on the entire Gaza Strip”.He said that civil defence crews are still working to dig through the rubble at the scene of the latest attack in Jabalia.

He cited one rescue worker as saying many of the victims have sustained burn wounds.

‘Larger’ offensive?
Israel resumed its military assault on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire that had brought a temporary halt to fighting in the blockaded territory.

The military is continuing to seal vital border crossings for the eighth week in a row, denying the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid, including medical supplies and fuel, worsening an already deep humanitarian crisis amid relentless bombardment.

Israel’s army chief, visiting troops in Gaza on Thursday, threatened a “larger” offensive if captives seized in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, are not freed.

“If we do not see progress in the return of the hostages in the near future, we will expand our activities to a larger and more significant operation,” Eyal Zamir said.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, ordered Palestinians living in the northern areas of Beit Hanoon and Sheikh Zeid to evacuate in advance of an attack.

The United Nations has warned that Israel’s expanding evacuation orders across Gaza are resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas.