Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday killed at least 64 people, hospitals said, as U S President Donald Trump wraps up his Middle East visit that skipped Israel and offered no prospect for a ceasefire in the war-battered territory.

At least 48 bodies were brought to the Indonesian Hospital and another 16 bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital, health officials said, as strikes overnight into Friday morning hit the outskirts of Deir al-Balah and the city of Khan Younis.

A doctor at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern city of Beit Lahia, who requested anonymity, told AFP that 30 dead and dozens of wounded, mostly children and women, had arrived at the hospital.

Mohammed Saleh, acting director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, told AFP that the hospital had received five dead and "more than 75 injured" as a result of the bombardment.

"The Israeli occupation bombed the house next to mine, hitting it directly while its residents were inside," Yousef Al-Sultan, 40, from the al-Salatin area, west of Beit Lahia, told AFP, reporting "air strikes, artillery shelling and gunfire from quadcopter drones."

"There is a massive wave of displacement among civilians. Fear and panic grip us in the middle of the night," he said.

The widespread attacks across northern Gaza come as Trump finishes his visit to Gulf states but not Israel.

There had been widespread hope that Trump’s regional visit could usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. An Israeli blockade of the territory is now in its third month.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.

The strikes lasted hours into Friday morning sending people fleeing from the Jabaliya refugee camp and the town of Beit Lahiya and followed days of similar attacks that killed more than 130 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed earlier in the week to push ahead with a promised escalation of force in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip to pursue his aim of destroying the Hamas militant group, which governs Gaza.

In comments released by Netanyahu’s office Tuesday, the prime minister said Israeli forces were days away from entering Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission.

It means destroying Hamas.”It was unclear if Friday’s bombardment was the start of the operation.

The attacks come as Israel enters its third month of blockading Gaza, preventing food, fuel medicine and all other supplies from entering, worsening a humanitarian crisis.

Israel claims that the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds and that it won’t allow aid back in until a system is in place that gives it control over distribution.

Hamas still holds 58 of the roughly 250 hostages it took during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with 23 believed to still be alive, although Israeli authorities have expressed concern for the status of three of those.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.Almost 3,000 have been killed since Israel broke a ceasefire on March 18, it said.

Earlier this week, a new humanitarian organisation that has US backing to take over aid delivery in the Gaza strip said it expects to begin operations before the end of the month — after what it describes as key agreements from Israeli officials.

A statement from the group, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, identified several US military veterans, former humanitarian coordinators and security contractors that it said would lead the delivery effort.

Many in the humanitarian community, including the UN, said the system does not align with humanitarian principles and won't be able to meet the needs of Palestinians in Gaza and won't participate it.

Source:The IndianExpress