Hamas-run agency says at least 50 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says dozens of Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territory killed at least 50 people, including 22 children, and wounded around 200.

“At least 50 killed, including 22 children and a number of women and children, as a result of the ongoing Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since last night,” says Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency.

Around 200 people were wounded “in a clear and flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” he says, calling the situation in Gaza “catastrophic and terrifying.”

Israel says it launched the strikes due to repeated violations by Hamas, including an attack that killed a soldier in Rafah yesterday, and the terror group’s failure to return the 13 remaining bodies of hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal. Israeli officials are adamant that the terror group knows the location of most of the bodies and is falsely claiming otherwise in order to drag out their return.

Two days ago Hamas handed over partial remains it claimed belonged to one of the 13 hostages, but were later discovered by Israel to belong to a hostage who was recovered by Israeli troops in December 2023. In addition, the military released footage showing Hamas staging the fake recovery of those remains, bringing them out of a building and placing them in a large hole operatives had dug in the ground in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. They then covered the body bag in dirt and pretended to uncover it for the first time in front of the Red Cross.