Israel Kills 50 Palestinians in Escalating Gaza Strikes

By Abdullahi Yusuf

At least 50 Palestinians have been killed since dawn on Friday in a wave of Israeli airstrikes across the besieged Gaza Strip, with attacks reported from Gaza City in the north to Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.

The mounting civilian death toll has reignited international outrage and further fuelled calls within Israel itself to end the war.

Among the most devastating incidents, 10 members of the Baraka family were killed when Israeli forces bombed a residential home in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis.

Civil defence teams, digging through the rubble, reported numerous wounded in the area.

“Our crews recovered the bodies of 10 people and a large number of wounded,” said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

In another strike on tents sheltering displaced civilians in Khan Younis, a four-month-old fetus was killed in utero. Amani Abu al-Ras, the pregnant mother, remains in critical condition. Her husband Mahmoud and one of their children were killed instantly.

Airstrikes in northern Gaza’s al-Saftawi district killed at least four more people, including two children, according to reporters on the ground.

The grim toll of the past 24 hours has drawn condemnation from humanitarian groups and UN agencies.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the escalating deaths of children in Gaza are “beyond heartbreaking.”

Targeting children

She confirmed that 15 children, including one with disabilities, died in a single airstrike on makeshift shelters. “Images of children burning while sheltering in tents should shake us all to our core,” she wrote on social media.

According to UNICEF, nearly 600 children have been killed and more than 1,600 injured since the breakdown of the latest ceasefire on March 18.

Humanitarian organisations now say Gaza represents “one of the worst humanitarian failures of our generation.” The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) estimates that nearly 420,000 Palestinians have been displaced again in just the past few weeks.

Israel’s tactics in Gaza have also come under fire from within. In a rare rebuke, Israeli daily Haaretz condemned what it described as a policy of “starving Gaza,” calling it “fully normalized” under the current Israeli government.

“This has become an openly declared policy and even a source of pride,” said the editorial titled “Israel must stop starving Gaza.”

The pressure is also building inside Israel to halt the war. Over 128,000 Israelis have signed petitions demanding the return of Israeli captives held in Gaza—even if it means ending the ongoing military campaign.

According to the Restart Israel platform, which tracks civil and military petitions, the number of such appeals rose to 47 by Friday, up from 43 the previous day. Notably, several of the appeals come from Israeli reserve soldiers and former officers.

Meanwhile, the toll of Israel’s campaign continues to climb.

Palestinian Health Ministry puts the confirmed death count at 51,065 with 116,505 wounded. The Government Media Office estimates over 61,700 have died, with thousands still trapped under rubble, presumed dead.

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