Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza City, hospitals say, as offensive expands

BBC;

More than 80 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, most of them in Gaza City, local hospitals said.

Women and children were among at least 20 who died when a strike hit a building and tents sheltering displaced families near Firas market in Gaza City’s central Daraj neighbourhood overnight, according to first responders.

The Israeli military said it struck two Hamas fighters and that the number of casualties did not align with its own information.

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and troops continued their advance into the heart of the city, which Israel says is the last stronghold of Hamas.

The military has said the ground offensive aims to secure the release of the hostages still held by Hamas and ensure the Palestinian armed group’s “decisive defeat”.

Hundreds of thousands of residents have so far fled Gaza’s biggest urban centre, where a famine was confirmed last month by a UN-backed body. But hundreds of thousands more remain there in dire humanitarian conditions, with health and other essential services collapsing.

In a separate development, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said President Donald Trump had presented a “21-point plan for peace in the Mideast and Gaza” to a group of Arab and Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Witkoff gave no details about the plan, but said it addressed “Israeli concerns as well as the concerns of all the neighbours in the region”.

“We’re hopeful, and I might say even confident, that in the coming days we’ll be able to announce some sort of breakthrough,” he added.