Israeli strikes kill 51 in Gaza, taking Palestinian war toll to over 52K

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the remains of 51 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours, the local Health Ministry said Sunday, bringing the Palestinian death toll from the 18-month-old Israel-Hamas war to 52,243.

Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise bombardment on March 18, and has been carrying out daily waves of strikes. Ground forces have expanded a buffer zone and encircled the southern city of Rafah, and now control around 50 per cent of the territory.

Israel has also sealed off Gaza's 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, for nearly 60 days. Aid groups say supplies will soon run out and that thousands of children are malnourished. 

The overall death toll includes nearly 700 bodies for which the documentation process was recently completed, the ministry said in its latest update. The daily toll includes bodies retrieved from the rubble after earlier strikes.

Israeli strikes killed another 23 people after the ministry's update.

Eight of them, including three children and two women, were killed in a strike on a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital. A strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed four people, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and another on a tent there killed four children and a man, the hospital said. A strike hit a coffee shop near the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least six people, according to al-Awda and al-Aqsa hospitals.

My son, my son, why did you go out, my son? one man, Eyad Omar, said in Deir al-Balah as he mourned.

Israeli authorities say the renewed offensive and tightened blockade are aimed at pressuring Hamas to release hostages abducted in its attack on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed and all the hostages are returned.

Hamas has said that it will only release the remaining 59 hostages 24 believed to be alive in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the now-defunct ceasefire reached in January.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and took 251 people hostage. Most have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Gaza's Health Ministry says women and children make up most of the Palestinian deaths, but doesn't say how many were militants or civilians. It says another 117,600 people have been wounded in the war.

The overall tally includes 2,151 dead and 5,598 wounded since Israel resumed the war last month.

Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and it blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in densely populated areas.

Israel's offensive has destroyed vast parts of Gaza and displaced around 90 per cent of its population, leaving hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in squalid tent camps or bombed-out buildings.