Gaza City / Tel Aviv — At least 146 Palestinians were killed and several hundred wounded during the past 24 hours as Israeli jets pounded the Gaza Strip, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Saturday. The latest strikes come amid preparations for a broader ground push following the breakdown of the March 18 cease-fire, reported the Siasat.
Dr Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, said medical teams received 58 bodies overnight, including four children, and warned that many victims remain trapped beneath collapsed homes. “Conditions are catastrophic. We are out of anesthetics, out of fuel, and soon out of hope,” he told local radio.
Months of aerial bombardment and a tightened blockade have crippled Gaza’s hospitals. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher told the Security Council that famine is “imminent” unless corridors for food, fuel, and medicines open immediately, cautioning that failure to act could “amount to genocide.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it is escalating airstrikes and massing armor around the enclave under “Operation Gideon’s Wagons,” a campaign it says aims to dismantle Hamas and rescue remaining hostages seized on 7 October 2023. Tanks have advanced toward southern towns even as residents of northern Gaza were ordered to evacuate southward.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that Israeli forces may seek full control of the territory. Reports in Israeli media suggest planning is under way for extended occupation “zones” once major combat subsides.
Gaza’s death toll since October now exceeds 53,000, according to local officials, with nearly two million people displaced—most forced into overcrowded shelters or makeshift tents. Aid groups say dwindling clean-water supplies and overflowing sewage threaten a secondary wave of disease.
Global pressure for a halt to the assault is mounting. During a regional tour this week, former US President Donald Trump called for “a time-bound pause,” but Washington has stopped short of demanding a cease-fire. Palestinian officials condemned leaked proposals to relocate up to one million Gazans to Libya as “ethnic cleansing in slow motion.”
