Nearly 100 people killed in Israeli attack on Gaza, rescuers say
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1Nearly 100 people, including children, have been killed in a large-scale Israeli ground, air and sea attack launched early Friday in north Gaza, the Hamas-run civil defence and residents have said.
2The civil defence said at least nine homes and tents housing civilians had been bombed overnight and it had received dozens of calls from people trapped.
3Witnesses also reported smoke bombs, artillery shelling and tanks in Beit Lahia.
4Israel's military said it was "operating to locate and dismantle terrorist infrastructure sites" in north Gaza and had "eliminated several terrorists" over the past day.
5This marks the largest ground assault on north Gaza since Israel resumed its offensive in March.
6Basheer al-Ghandour, who fled Beit Lahia for Jabalia after the attack, told the BBC people were sleeping when suddenly "intense bombing" hit overnight.
7"It came from all sides - air strikes and warships. 8My brother's house collapsed. 9There were 25 people inside," he said.
10He said 11 people were injured and five killed, including his nieces, aged five and 18, and a 15-year-old nephew. 11He and others tried to free relatives from the rubble.
12"My brother's wife is still under the rubble - we didn't manage to rescue her. 13Because of how intense the bombing was, we had to flee," he said.
14"We didn't take anything with us - no furniture, no food, no flour. 15We even left in bare feet."
16Another survivor, Yousif Salem, told reporters he and his three children had "just escaped death".
17"An air strike hit our neighbours' home - none of them survived," he said.
18He said artillery shells began hitting near their house as they were trapped inside. 19When he tried to leave, a quadcopter drone opened fire, he said.
20He made a second attempt under heavy shelling, he said. 21All roads were blocked, but they managed to find a side road.
22"We escaped only minutes before Israeli tanks encircled the area," he said.
23According to local residents, the attack began with smoke bomb barrages followed by intense artillery shelling from nearby Israeli positions.
24Tanks then began advancing toward Al-Salateen neighbourhood in western Beit Lahia.
25Witnesses reported that Israeli armoured vehicles surrounded a school sheltering hundreds of displaced civilians.
26Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets early Friday over several areas in north Gaza calling on residents to evacuate the areas immediately, raising fears the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was expanding its military operation in one of Gaza's most densely populated regions.
27The evacuation orders sparked panic among families who have been displaced multiple times since the war began. 28Many have nowhere else to go.
29"I swear I don't know where we're going," said Sana Marouf, who was fleeing with her family on a donkey cart in Gaza City.
30"We don't have mattresses, blankets, food or water."
31She said she had seen people "torn to pieces" overnight. 32"It was a black night. 33They were relentlessly bombing us."
34The attack in north Gaza comes after Israeli air strikes killed more than 120 people, mostly in the south, on Thursday.
35The IDF said on Friday it had struck more than 150 "terror targets" throughout Gaza over the past day, including anti-tank missile posts, military structures, and centres where groups were planning to "carry out terrorist attacks against IDF troops".
36In south Gaza, the IDF said it had dismantled Hamas structures and shafts and killed "several terrorists" who Israel said had planned to plant an explosive device.
37While Friday's powerful overnight strikes and reported advance by ground troops west of Beit Lahia are significant, this does not yet look like Israel's threatened major military offensive.
38Israel's government has pledged to intensify operations in Gaza and indefinitely reoccupy the Strip if Hamas did not accept a proposal for a temporary ceasefire and the return of remaining hostages by the end of President Donald Trump's regional trip, which concluded on Friday.
39While there has been no sign of a breakthrough with negotiating teams still in Doha, local media say that Arab mediators have been pushing for more time to give talks a chance.
40A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas agreed in January broke down when Israel relaunched air strikes on Gaza in March.
41Israel also implemented a total blockade on humanitarian aid, including food, that has been widely condemned by the UN as well as European and Arab countries.
42Israel's defence minister Israel Katz last month said the blockade was a "main pressure lever" to secure victory over Hamas and get all the hostages out.
43There is growing evidence that Israel's 10-week blockade is having an increasingly detrimental humanitarian impact. 44Aid organisations and residents say people in Gaza are now starving.
45A recent UN-backed report said Gaza's whole population – some 2.1 million people – is at critical risk of famine.
46The Israeli government has insisted there is no shortage of food in Gaza and that the "real crisis is Hamas looting and selling aid".
47Israel and the US have proposed allowing in and distributing aid through private companies - a plan rejected by the UN.
48The deteriorating situation in Gaza has drawn concern from the US this week.
49Boarding his flight home from the Middle East, Trump said the US needs to "help out the Palestinians" and acknowledges "a lot of people are starving".
50On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was "troubled" by the humanitarian situation.
51Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
52At least 53,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
53Fifty-eight hostages are still being held in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.
54Additional reporting by Alice Cuddy in Jerusalem
from BBC