Israel strikes two homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians

More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the UN chief warned again that nowhere is safe in Gaza. 

Aso Saturday, the Israeli military said troops arrested hundreds of alleged militants in Gaza over the past week and transferred more than 200 of them to Israel for further interrogation, providing rare details on a controversial policy of mass roundups of Palestinian men.

The army said more than 700 people with alleged ties to the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have so far been sent to Israeli lockups.

Israel declared war after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages.

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war to destroy Hamas and more than 53,000 have been wounded, according to health officials in Gaza, a besieged territory ruled by the Islamic militant group for the past 16 years.

Despite mounting international calls for a cease-fire, Israel has vowed to keep up the fight until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all the hostages are freed.

The Biden administration has shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena.

On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a cease-fire.

The Health Ministry in Gaza on Saturday evening said 201 people had been killed over the past 24 hours.

On Friday, airstrikes flattened two homes, one in Gaza City and the other in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat in the centre of the territory.

The Gaza City strike killed 76 people from the al-Mughrabi family, making it one of the deadliest of the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's Civil Defense department. He provided the names of 16 heads of households within the family, and said the dead included women and children.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that it's a mistake to measure the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation by the number of trucks.

“The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” he said. He said the prerequisites for an effective aid operation don't exist: security, staff who can work in safety, logistical capacity and the resumption of commercial activity.

Among those killed were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the UN Development Program, his wife, and their five children.

“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, the head of the agency. “This war must end.”

Later Friday, a strike pulverised the Nuseirat home of Mohammed Khalifa, a local TV journalist, killing him and at least 14 others, according to officials at the nearby Al Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital where the bodies were taken.

Mourners held funeral prayers Saturday in the hospital's courtyard while rescue teams continued to search for survivors. The legs of at least two bodies were seen under what appeared to be a collapsed roof.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, citing the militants' use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since October 7, and has largely refrained from commenting on specific attacks.

Israel's offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million people and levelling wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report this week from the United Nations and other agencies.

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