A Palestinian woman on Friday carries the body of a child outside Shifa hospital in Gaza City where casualties of Israeli fire were transported ahead of their funerals.BASHAR TALEB/AFP/Getty Images
Israel declared Gaza’s largest city a dangerous combat zone and recovered the remains of two hostages on Friday as the army launched the “initial stages” of a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.
As the military announced the resumption of fighting, health officials said the death toll in Gaza has risen to 63,025, with 59 new deaths reported by hospitals over the past 24 hours. Aid groups and a church sheltering people said they would stay in Gaza City, refusing to abandon the hungry and displaced who depend on them.
The shift comes weeks after Israel first announced plans to widen its offensive in the city, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering while enduring famine. The military has in recent days ramped up strikes in neighbourhoods on the city’s outskirts.
Latest updates on Gaza City, Israel’s planned offensive and the Palestinian famine so far
Plumes of smoke and thunderous blasts could be seen and heard across the border in southern Israel on Friday morning.
Also on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of next month’s annual high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, a step the Palestinian Authority decried as against international law.
A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss visa issues that are normally confidential, disclosed Friday that Abbas and other officials from the Palestinian Authority were among those affected by new visa restrictions. Palestinian representatives assigned to the U.N. mission, however, were granted exceptions.
The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to target Palestinians with visa restrictions and comes as the Israeli military declared Gaza’s largest city a combat zone. The State Department also suspended a program that had allowed injured Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the U.S. for medical treatment after a social-media outcry by some conservatives.
The State Department said in a statement that Rubio also ordered some new visa applications from Palestinian officials, including those tied to the Palestine Liberation Organization, be denied.
The Palestinian Authority denounced the visa withdrawals as a violation of U.S. commitments as the host country of the United Nations and urged the State Department to reverse its decision.
Displaced Palestinians fleeing the northern Gaza Strip move with their belongings in Gaza City on Thursday.Abdel Kareem Hana/The Associated Press
Israel has called Gaza City a Hamas stronghold, alleging that a network of tunnels remain in use by militants after several previous large-scale raids on the area throughout nearly 23 months of war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued that crippling Hamas’ capabilities in the city is critical to shielding Israel from a repeat of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.
While United Nations agencies and aid groups condemned the offensive’s announced start, people in Gaza City said it made little difference: Strikes already have been intensifying and the aid reaching them was insufficient.
City resident Mohamed Aboul Hadi said it made no difference. “The massacres never stopped, even during the humanitarian pauses,” he said in a text message sent from Gaza City.
More than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war started, the Gaza Health Ministry said Friday. The ministry’s count – 63,025 – does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. It also said five people had died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 322, including 121 children, since the war began.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.
Facing international criticism, Israel instituted what it called “tactical pauses” in Gaza City last month that it said were geared toward letting more food and aid in. The pauses included a suspension of fighting from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., though aid groups have said deliveries remained challenging due to blockade, looting and Israeli restrictions.
Midday Friday, the military said it had suspended the pauses, marking the latest escalation after weeks of announcing preparatory strikes in some of the city’s neighbourhoods and calling up tens of thousands of reservists.
“We will intensify our strikes until we bring back all the kidnapped hostages and dismantle Hamas,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said.
Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, has for days urged Palestinians in Gaza City to flee south, calling evacuation “inevitable.”
Hundreds of residents began the journey south on Friday, piling their few remaining possessions onto pickup trucks or donkey carts. Many have been forced to leave their homes more than once.
“We cannot find any place in the west nor in the south. Conditions are difficult. Where are we going? We don’t know,” said Saddam Yazigi as he prepared to leave Gaza City.
The UN said Thursday that 23,000 people had evacuated over the past week, but many Palestinians in Gaza City question the effort when there is nowhere safe to go.
The Holy Family Church of Gaza City told the Associated Press on Friday that the roughly 440 people sheltering there would remain along with members of the clergy who would assist them.
Farid Jubran said the church had left the decision up to the people even though they had little recourse to insulate themselves from fighting.
“When we feel danger, people get closer to the walls or whatever, it’s more protected,” he said, noting the church had few specific defences.
The UN’s humanitarian agency said its staff and NGOs also would remain on the ground.
Palestinians walk past tents in Gaza City on Friday. Smoke from Israeli strikes is in the background.BASHAR TALEB/AFP/Getty Images
As Israel suspended pauses on Friday in Gaza City, the military did not say whether they had notified residents or aid groups of the impending declaration ahead of the 11:30 a.m. announcement.
Norwegian Refugee Council, which co-ordinates a coalition of aid groups active in Gaza, said it had not received notification that Israel’s “tactical pauses” would be suspended.
The UN said Thursday the besieged strip could lose half of its hospital bed capacity during an expanded assault on Gaza City.
“We cannot provide health services to two million people besieged in the south,” said Zaher al-Wahidi, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, noting a forcible evacuation of the strip’s largest city would be an environmental and health catastrophe.
The suspension of the pause also comes one week after the world’s leading food security authority declared Gaza City was being gripped by famine after months of warnings.
An Israeli military official said Israel intended to continue facilitating aid to Gaza City. But the official provided no details on how they would continue to get aid in amid a ramped-up offensive.
“This will have a horrific impact on people already exhausted, malnourished, bereaved, displaced, and deprived of basics needed for survival,” the UN’s humanitarian agency said in a statement. “Forcing hundreds of thousands to move south is a recipe for further disaster.”
The World Health Organization also said Friday that it has run out of critical medical supplies in Gaza that it needs to treat a surge in cases of a rare paralysis-causing syndrome.
There have been 94 documented cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Gaza since June, resulting in 10 deaths, although GBS had rarely been seen in the enclave before the war began, it said.
GBS is a rare condition that involves a person’s immune system attacking the peripheral nerves. Severe cases can result in near-total paralysis and breathing problems, the WHO said.
An Israeli army battle tank in the Gaza Strip near the border with southern Israel on Friday.JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Israel on Friday said its military had recovered the remains of two hostages, including an Israeli man who was killed in the Oct. 7 attack.
The remains of Ilan Weiss and another unnamed hostage were returned to Israel.
“The campaign to return the hostages continues continuously. We will not rest or be silent until we return all of our hostages home – both the living and the dead,” Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a statement.
Weiss, 55 at the time of his death, was killed in the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the southern Israel communities near Gaza that Hamas-led militants stormed on Oct. 7.
The day of the attack, Weiss vanished after heading to the community’s weapons storehouse to fend off the militants. His wife and daughter were also taken hostage and released after fifty days.
For the families of hostages, the return of their remains meets a central demand and brings a measure of closure, but also is a reminder of the bloodshed and the hostages who remain in Gaza.
“At least they have closure,” said Rubi Chen, whose son was abducted during the Oct. 7 attack and is believed to be dead. “There are still 49 families waiting to have that closure.”
Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants, nearly 50 remain in Gaza including 20 that Israel believes to be alive.
Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which has organized large-scale protests demanding a ceasefire to return the hostages, mourned the losses and said Israeli leaders should prioritize a deal to return both the living and the dead.
“We call on the Israeli government to enter negotiations and stay at the table until every last hostage comes home. Time is running out for the hostages,” it said in a statement.
With a report from Reuters