Israeli strikes destroy 'hundreds' of Gaza buildings – rescuers

GAZA STRIP, Occupied Palestine — Israel's army relentlessly hammered Gaza on Saturday after fierce overnight bombardment that rescuers said destroyed hundreds of buildings three weeks into a war sparked by the deadliest attack in the country's history.

The United Nations warned thousands more civilians could die as Israel escalated ground operations, while the families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas said the government snubbed them when asking about the captives' fate.

Israel unleashed its bombing campaign after Hamas fighters stormed across the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1,400 people and seizing more than 220 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed 7,703 people, mainly civilians, with more than 3,500 of them children.

The conflict is the fifth and deadliest in Gaza since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005.

The intense Israeli strikes against Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, coincided with ground operations and came as tens of thousands of troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of an expected full-blown invasion.

Israeli occupation forces had also made limited ground incursions on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed and thousands of other homes were damaged,” said Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, said it targeted Israeli forces in an area of northern Gaza near the border on Saturday.

Israeli warplanes flew overhead and successive booms could be heard coming from Gaza, AFP journalists reported.

A thick haze of smoke covered Gaza and southern Israel after the night of heavy bombardment.

“There are a large number of martyrs and a large number of survivors under the rubble, and we cannot reach them,” a Gaza civil defence official said.

“The stench of death is everywhere, in every neighbourhood, every street and every house,” respiratory physician Raed Al Astal told AFP from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

 ‘Stop this madness’ 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “Israel must immediately stop this madness and end its attacks” in a post on X on Saturday, after the UN General Assembly called for an “immediate humanitarian truce” in Gaza.

The non-binding resolution on Friday received overwhelming support, but Israel and the United States criticised it for failing to mention Hamas.

Israel’s bombardment has displaced more than 1.4 million people inside Gaza, according to the UN, while supplies of food, water and power to the crowded territory have been almost completely cut off.

Israel has blocked all deliveries of fuel, saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.

A first tranche of aid was allowed on October 21, but only 84 have crossed in total, according to the UN, which says a daily average of 500 trucks had entered Gaza before the conflict.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said Gazans were “not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of [the] siege”.

“These few trucks are nothing more than crumbs that will not make a difference.”

Violence has also risen sharply in the occupied West Bank since the October 7 attacks, with more than 100 Palestinians killed and nearly 2,000 wounded, according to the UN.