Gaza border [Israel], May 16: At least 115 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in a wave of Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, as indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas continue.
At least 61 people were killed overnight and early on Thursday in a barrage of attacks on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to local health officials. In Jabalia in northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on Al-Tawba medical clinic killed at least 15 people and wounded several others, the health ministry said.
Israel's army also attacked three hospitals in north and south Gaza: Al Awda hospital in Jabalia, the Indonesian Hospital in Khan Younis, and the European hospital, which Gaza's health ministry says is now out of service.
Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, described "another bloody day" in Gaza, as Israel intensified its air attacks on residential areas.
"Israeli warplanes directly targeted nine houses without any warning in the city of Khan Younis," he said, adding that entire families were "completely wiped out".
He described the situation as chaotic, with civilians fleeing repeated forced evacuation orders. "The Israeli military targeted civilians while they were asleep," launching 13 air raids on the Jabalia refugee camp and nearby areas. Civil defence teams, he added, were overwhelmed and struggling to rescue those trapped under the rubble, due to a lack of equipment.
Abu Azzoum said the strikes reflect a "pattern of attacks not aimed at military targets, but at systematically destroying Gaza's social fabric".
Hamas said in a statement that Israel was making a "desperate attempt to negotiate under cover of fire" as indirect ceasefire talks take place between Israel and Hamas, involving US envoys and Qatar and Egyptian mediators in Doha.
The latest killings come amid new waves of forced displacement. Thousands fled Gaza City on Thursday after the Israeli military issued forced evacuation orders the day before.
Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported scenes of panic and fear as residents packed their belongings and tried to escape the expected onslaught.
"We're seeing families carrying their belongings and taking to the streets," Mahmoud said. "The children and elderly are carrying whatever they're able to carry . They don't know where to go. There is no safe place for these people - the so-called shelters have already been destroyed by Israeli bombs." Speaking to Al Jazeera, displaced Palestinian Hasan Moqbel described the continuing assault as a war on civilians. "They have been bombing Gaza for 19 months. What's left in Gaza? Innocent children are dying. There is no armed activity here. Most of them are elderly people who are dying," he said.
The attacks come as Palestinians mark the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled by Zionist paramilitary groups during the creation of Israel in 1948.
Regarding the wider mood in Gaza on Nakba Day, Abu Azzoum said people were "deeply worried" about a potential expansion of Israeli ground operations. "They believe the Israeli army may force them to flee again - to new areas where conditions are even worse." Despite international diplomacy, "there is no sign of a slowdown on the ground," he warned.
The US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, spoke to Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor James Bays this week and "painted a positive picture on a deal on Gaza", with a potential agreement being reached "pretty soon".
When asked whether Witkoff was referring only to aid access - given that aid is currently completely blocked for the people of Gaza, with no food or medicine getting in - or to a ceasefire, he replied, "all of it, I'm positive about all that".
Source: Qatar Tribune
