Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people, including a foreign aid worker, in Gaza a day after it resumed heavy bombardment across the enclave that shattered a ceasefire with Hamas.
The Israeli strikes attacks early on Wednesday targeted several locations across the Strip. Health authorities said at least three people were killed in a house in Gaza City, while another airstrike left two men dead and wounded six others in Beit Hanoun town in the north.
Palestinian medics also said Israeli tank shelling on Salahdeen road killed one Palestinian and wounded others, while an Israeli airstrike killed three people in a house in Beit Lahiya town north of the enclave.
In central Gaza, Palestinians reported an attack on a home near a mosque in Deir el-Balah area, while Israeli helicopter fire and artillery shelling were reported east of the Bureij refugee camp.
The Gaza Health Ministry said a UN foreign staffer was killed and five other workers were wounded in an airstrike on the site of a UN headquarters in the center of the enclave.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director of the UN office for Project Services, said: “Israel knew that this was a UN premises, that people were living, staying and working there, it is a compound. It is a very well-known place.”
An explosive device was dropped or fired on the premises, he told a press conference in Brussels. “This was not an accident,” he said. “What’s happening in Gaza is unconscionable.”
The Israeli military said it hit overnight a Hamas site in northern Gaza where it had detected preparations for firing into Israeli territory.
Wednesday’s violence comes after more than 400 Palestinians were killed, many of them children, as Israel resumed its full-fledged bombing of Gaza on Tuesday, breaking a fragile truce with Hamas that had been in place since January 19.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday that at least 436 people have been killed since Israel resumed its bombardment.
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said people in Gaza were left “terrified, helpless and devastated” following the attacks amid the Israeli blockade of aid and electricity cuts.
“People are starving. They do not have access to food. The water desalination plant that was providing water for 500,000 Palestinians is not working [due to Israel cutting off electricity],” she said. “With all this happening, Palestinians wake up to a massive series of attacks in different areas of Gaza.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday the renewed bombing of Gaza was “only the beginning” and that Israel would press ahead until it achieves all of its war aims — destroying Hamas and freeing all the captives.
Israel’s resumption of attacks drew widespread condemnation, including from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who said he was “outraged by the Israeli air strikes in Gaza”.
China’s European envoy Fu Cong regretted the “harm done to the hard-won ceasefire”. Several lawmakers in the United States also condemned the Israeli attacks, with Senator Bernie Sanders calling for an end to US military aid to Israel.
Protests erupt in Israel
Israel’s opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid called on the public to rally against Netanyahu’s government, accusing it of having “no red lines”.
The entire nation must “come together and say: ‘Enough!'”, wrote Lapid in a post on X on Wednesday. “I’m calling on all of you – this is our moment, this is our future, this is our country. Take to the streets!” he added.
Thousands of Israelis packed a Tel Aviv square on Tuesday evening to demand the government resume negotiations for a captive deal.
The main group representing the families of the captives held in Gaza accused the government of “deliberately dismantling” the ceasefire.
“Today Netanyahu did not open the gates of hell on Hamas. He opened the gates of hell on our loved ones,” said Einav Zangauker, whose son is among the captives.
