At least 34 Palestinians and 1 soldier killed in Gaza as hopes for imminent truce fade
Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least 34 Palestinians, including 10 people waiting for care outside a medical clinic, local hospitals and aid workers said Thursday. The Israeli military said one soldier was killed in Gaza.
The fighting in Gaza has shown no sign of slowing as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Donald Trump in Washington this week to work on a U.S.-led ceasefire plan. Hopes for an agreement in the near term appeared to be fading as Netanyahu prepared to return to Israel.
Netanyahu is holding firm to the idea that Hamas must be destroyed, while Hamas wants a complete end to the war following the proposed 60-day truce.
Gaza's Nasser Hospital reported a total of 21 deaths in airstrikes in the southern town of Khan Younis and the nearby coastal area of Muwasi. It said three children and their mother, as well as two other women, were among the dead.
In central Gaza, at least 13 people were killed in the city of Deir al-Balah, including at least 10 people waiting to receive nutritional supplements at a medical clinic early Thursday, according to Project Hope, an aid group that runs the humanitarian facility, well known to all parties. Two women and five children were among the dead.
"No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed," said Dr. Mithqal Abutaha, the group's project manager, who was at another clinic at the time.
"People had to come seeking health and support, instead they faced death," he said.
In the hours afterward, families gathered in the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital to pray over the bodies of those killed, laid across the floor.
Omar Meshmesh, holding the body of three-year-old Aya Meshmesh, his niece, said the little girl had gone to the clinic with her mother for the supplements when they were hit.
"What did she ever do? Did she throw a rocket at them or throw something at them? ... she's an innocent child," he said.
Israel's military said it struck near the clinic while targeting a militant it said had entered Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. It said it was investigating.
Underground tunnel
Israeli troops have been working in Khan Younis to dismantle more than 130 Hamas infrastructure sites over the past week, including a 500-meter (yard) tunnel, missile launch sites, and weapons storage facilities, the military said.
Over the past 24 hours, massive explosions in Gaza sent up plumes of smoke that were visible from the border with Israel.
On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that a soldier was killed in Khan Younis a day earlier after militants burst out of an underground tunnel and tried to abduct him. The soldier was shot and killed, while troops in the area shot the militants, hitting several of them, the military said.
Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks, one of the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months, putting additional public pressure on Netanyahu to end the war.
Violence in the West Bank
Two attackers killed a 22-year-old Israeli man at an Israeli supermarket in a settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday afternoon, according to Israel's Magen David Adom emergency rescue services.
Israeli police said two people in a stolen vehicle began attacking a security guard at the supermarket. Paramedics said people on site shot and killed the two attackers. Police did not release information about the attackers, but the Israeli military said forces are setting up roadblocks around the Palestinian town of Halhul, which is located around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the supermarket.
Earlier Thursday, a 55-year-old Palestinian man was killed in the West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said the man was shot after stabbing a soldier in the village of Rumana. The soldier suffered moderate wounds.
The war in Gaza has sparked a surge of violence in the West Bank, with the Israeli military carrying out large-scale operations targeting militants that have killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands.
That has coincided with a rise in settler violence and Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Palestinian militants from the West Bank have also attacked and killed Israelis in Israel and the West Bank as tensions simmer.
The war began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Most have been released in earlier ceasefires. Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The ministry, which is under Gaza's Hamas-run government, doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
'We're going to build them better'
Israel has started demolitions on Thursday of more than a dozen buildings in the central city of Bat Yam, which saw the deadliest Iranian missile strike during the 12-day Israel-Iran war.
Nine people were killed, including five members of a family, in Bat Yam. The family were Ukrainian refugees who fled the war and came to Israel for medical treatment, according to Israeli media.
Bat Yam Mayor Tzvika Brot said the strike left 2,000 people — more than 1% of the city's population — homeless. Many are now living at hotels.
"We're going to demolish 20 buildings, but we're going to build them better, stronger, and there will be much more Israeli families running around here. That will be the best answer to our enemies," he added.
More than 15,000 Israelis were displaced from their homes due to damage from Iranian missiles, according to the Prime Minister's Office.
Iran launched 550 missiles and more than 1,000 drones towards Israel, killing 28 people, and injuring more than 3,000. Iran's government said this week that at least 1,060 Iranians were killed in the war.
