Israeli strikes, gunfire kill 33 as Gaza City becomes focus of famine and military offensive

Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including people sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food, local hospitals said as a famine in Gaza's largest city puts new pressure on Israel over its 22-month offensive.

- HAN YOUNIS

Israel's defense minister has warned that Gaza City could be destroyed in a new military operation perhaps just days away, even as famine spreads there.

Aid groups have long warned that the war, sparked by Hamas! Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and months of Israeli restrictions on food and medical supplies entering Gaza are causing starvation.

Israel has rejected the data-based famine declaration as "an outright lie." Ceasefire efforts are on hold as mediators await Israel's next steps.

Women and children struck and killed in tents

Israeli strikes killed at least 17 people in southern Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to morgue records and health officials at Nasser Hospital. The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis.

"Awad, why did you leave me?" a small boy asked his brother's plastic-wrapped body.

Another grieving relative, Hekmat Foujo, pleaded for a truce.

"We want to rest," Foujo said through her tears. ''Have some mercy onus."

In northern Gaza, Israeli gunfire killed at least five aid-seekers near the Zikim crossing with Israel, where U.N. and other truck convoys enter the territory, health officials at Sheikh Radwan field hospital told the AP.