Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday in air strikes by Israel, Palestinian media said, after the US urged Israel to scale down its military campaign and narrowly target Hamas leaders.
At least 14 people died from strikes that hit two houses on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia, and dozens were killed in a strike that hit another home in Jabalia, the official WAFA news agency said.
The Palestinian agency reported many civilians were trapped under rubble.
The Israeli military said its forces killed militants holed up in two schools in Gaza City and raided apartments in Khan Younis stocked with weapons, and uncovered what it described as undergound infrastructure used by Hamas.
The strikes come after the United States has warned that Israel risks losing international support because of “indiscriminate” air strikes killing Palestinian civilians.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who visited Israel on Thursday and Friday, carried a message to Israel to scale down the broad military campaign and transition to more narrowly targeted operations against Hamas leaders, US officials said.
Earlier today, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that they mistook three hostages as a “threat” and gunned them down in the Gaza Strip’s Shejaiya district. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the incident an “unbearable tragedy”.
A massive protest emerged in Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Junction following the mistaken killing of the hostages.
“There is no victory until every last hostage is released!” the crowds chanted, The Times of Israel reported.
Deaths in Gaza in the Israel-Hamas war, meanwhile, have risen to 18,787, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the region. The ministry added that 50,897 people have also been injured in the conflict.