Over 100 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza as Taoiseach condemns 'appalling' attack

LAST UPDATE | 15 hrs ago

DOZENS OF ISRAELI air strikes overnight have killed at least 100 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s civil defence agency.

The agency said 35 children were among those killed, as well as women and elderly, and that around 200 people were wounded.

The current death toll of 101 people was confirmed by an AFP tally of reports from medical officials at five Gaza hospitals that received the dead and wounded.

It comes hours after US President Donald Trump said “nothing” would jeopardise the ceasefire agreement he helped broker.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic and terrifying”, calling the strikes “a clear and flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement”.

“The Israeli strikes targeted tents for displaced people, homes, and the vicinity of a hospital in the Strip,” he said. 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin strongly condemned the strikes in a statement this evening.

“The latest loss of so many innocent lives, including dozens of children, is absolutely appalling,” Martin said, urging “all parties” to adhere to the ceasefire agreement.

Israel began carrying out air strikes yesterday after accusing Hamas of attacking Israeli troops in Gaza and violating the truce.

While Israel did not say where its troops were attacked, Hamas has said its fighters had “no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah” and reaffirmed its commitment to the US-brokered ceasefire.

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The Israeli army said one of its soldiers, 37-year-old Yona Efraim Feldbaum, was killed “during combat in the southern Gaza Strip” a day earlier, and his family had been informed.

Trump has defended Israel’s actions, saying it “should hit back”, but added that “nothing’s going to jeopardise” the truce.

“They killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis hit back. And they should hit back,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during his tour of Asia.

US Vice President JD Vance earlier said the ceasefire was holding despite the “skirmishes”.

Escalations

The territory’s main Al-Shifa hospital said one of the strikes hit its backyard.

Al-Awda Hospital said it had received several bodies, including those of four children, killed in the bombing of Gaza’s central Nuseirat refugee camp.

Hamas announced it would delay handing over the body of another hostage, due to happen yesterday, saying Israeli “escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies”.

A row over the last remaining bodies of deceased hostages that were taken during the Hamas-led attack in October 2023 has threatened to derail the ceasefire agreement.

Israel accuses Hamas of reneging by not returning them, but the group says it will take time to locate the remains buried in the rubble of the devastated territory.

Hamas later said on Telegram it had found the bodies of two hostages yesterday, but did not specify when it would hand them over.

‘Act decisively’

Hamas came under mounting pressure on Monday after it returned the partial remains of a previously recovered captive, which Israel said was a breach of the truce.

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Hamas had said the remains were the 16th of 28 hostage bodies it had agreed to return under the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on 10 October.

But Israeli forensic examination determined Hamas had in fact handed over partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been brought back to Israel around two years ago, according to Netanyahu’s office.

Israel yesterday accused Hamas of “staging” the retrieval of the body of a hostage. 

“The Hamas terrorist organisation summoned representatives of the Red Cross and staged a false display of discovering a deceased hostage’s body,” a military statement said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross told AFP its team was present “in good faith” at the site following a request by Hamas.

“The ICRC team at this location were not aware that a deceased person had been placed there prior to their arrival, as seen in the footage,” it said.

“Our team only observed what appeared to be the recovery of remains without prior knowledge of the circumstances leading up to it.”

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the government to “act decisively against these violations” and accused Hamas of knowing the location of the missing hostages.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem rejected claims the group knows where the remaining bodies are, arguing that Israel’s bombardment during the two-year war had left locations unrecognisable.

“The movement (Hamas) is determined to hand over the bodies of the Israeli captives as soon as possible once they are located,” he told AFP.

The militant group has already returned all 20 living hostages as agreed in the ceasefire deal.

With reporting from © AFP 2025 

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