Star Metro - Gaza civil defence says 15 killed in Israeli strikes

Civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP the dead included a couple who were killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of the southern city of Khan Yunis.

To the west of the city, at least five people were killed by a drone strike on a crowd of people that had gathered to wait for aid trucks, he said.

At Khan Yunis's Nasser Hospital, tearful mourners gathered around white-shrouded bodies outside.

"Suddenly, a missile from an F-16 destroyed the entire house, and all of them were civilians -- my sister, her husband and their children," said Wissam Al-Madhoun.

"We found them lying in the street. What did this child do to (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu?"

The Israeli military said it was unable to comment on individual strikes without their "precise geographical coordinates".

In a statement, the military said that over the past day the air force had struck more than 100 targets across the territory, including members of "terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip, military structures, underground routes and additional terrorist infrastructure".

Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

Gaza's health ministry said Saturday that at least 3,747 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war's overall toll to 53,901, mostly civilians.

- 'Cruellest phase' -

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Palestinians were enduring "the cruellest phase" of the war in Gaza, where a lengthy Israeli blockade has led to widespread shortages of food and medicine.

Limited aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2, amid mounting condemnation of the Israeli blockade.

The World Food Programme said 15 of its trucks were looted late Thursday night, calling on Israel "to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster".

"Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity," it said.

The Gaza City municipality, meanwhile, warned Saturday of "a potential large-scale water crisis" due to a lack of supplies needed for urgent repairs.

It said damage from the war had "affected the majority of Gaza's water infrastructure, leaving large portions of the population vulnerable to severe water shortages".

It added that temperatures were rising and demand was expected to increase.

A.Desjardins--SMC