Gaza Herald – Israeli warplanes launched a new wave of deadly airstrikes early Thursday across the Gaza Strip, targeting residential areas in eastern Khan Younis and multiple neighborhoods in Gaza City.
The attacks, including the demolition of civilian homes, marked yet another violation of the so-called ceasefire, shattering what little remained of calm after a 10-hour onslaught that killed 104 Palestinians the previous night.
Health authorities in Gaza confirmed that since the renewed escalation, at least 110 Palestinians have been killed, among them 46 children and 20 women, while 253 others have been injured. Entire families were obliterated as Israeli forces unleashed continuous bombardment through the night, with over ten explosions echoing across Khan Younis and gunfire reported in the areas of Ma’an, Sheikh Nasser, and Joura al-Lout. The number of victims since the declared ceasefire on October 10 has now risen to 217 killed and nearly 600 injured, underscoring Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign against Gaza’s civilians.
The renewed bombardment came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered what he called “powerful retaliatory strikes” in response to the reported killing of an Israeli soldier in Rafah. Those attacks left more than 100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, killed, flattening residential blocks across the Strip. Despite this, Israel claimed it would “resume” observing the ceasefire by mid-Wednesday, a declaration widely dismissed as a public relations cover for continued atrocities.
The United Nations strongly condemned the attacks, with Secretary-General António Guterres calling the mass killings “unjustifiable and horrific.” International human rights bodies warned that the bombardment represents a clear violation of international law, while Qatar, a key mediator, expressed deep frustration over Israel’s defiance of the ceasefire terms. Hamas, meanwhile, accused the U.S. of complicity in providing Israel with political cover to continue its crimes and announced it would delay the transfer of a captive’s body in protest of Israel’s ongoing violations.
In parallel, Israel officially barred the International Committee of the Red Cross from visiting Palestinian detainees held under the so-called “unlawful combatant” law, a move rights groups described as part of Israel’s systematic abuse of prisoners that includes torture, starvation, and arbitrary detention. Calls are growing internationally for the release of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, still imprisoned despite his inclusion in prisoner exchange proposals.
As dawn broke over Gaza, rescue crews continued digging through rubble in pitch darkness, pulling bodies of children and women from the ruins. With hospitals collapsing under the weight of the wounded and fuel supplies nearly depleted, Gaza stands at the edge of a full-scale humanitarian breakdown, a place where ceasefires are illusions and survival itself is defiance.
