Gaza medics say Israeli strikes killed at least 53 people

Gaza rescue teams and medics have said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 53 people, as the military issued fresh evacuation orders ahead of a planned attack.

Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on 18 March, after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire that had brought a temporary halt to fighting in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Israel's army chief, visiting troops in Gaza, threatened a "larger" offensive in the enclave if hostages seized in the Hamas 7 October 2023 attack on Israel are not freed.

"If we do not see progress in the return of the hostages in the near future, we will expand our activities to a larger and more significant operation," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said.

Six members of one family - a couple and their four children - were killed when an airstrike levelled their home in northern Gaza City, the civil defence said in a statement.

Nidal al-Sarafiti, a relative, said the strike happened as the family was sleeping.

"What can I say? The destruction has spared no one," he told AFP.

In a statement, the Indonesian hospital said nine people were killed and several wounded in another strike on a former police station in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.

Casualties were taken to the hospital following the attack.

"Everyone started running and screaming, not knowing what to do from the horror and severity of the bombing," said Abdel Qader Sabah, 23, from Jabalia.

Israel's military said it struck a Hamas "command and control centre" in the Jabalia area but did not say whether it was the police station.

In another deadly attack, the bodies of 12 people were recovered after the Hajj Ali family home, also in Jabalia, was struck, the civil defence said.

Another 26 people were killed in strikes across the enclave, medics and the civil defence agency reported.

They came as the Israeli military ordered Palestinians living in the northern areas of Beit Hanoun and Sheikh Zayed to evacuate ahead of an attack.

"Due to ongoing terrorist activities and sniper fire against IDF troops in the area, the IDF is intensely operating in the area," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

The Gaza Health Ministry said the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City had become non-operational, a day after an Israeli strike hit the upper part of the building, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the facility's solar power panel system.

The United Nations has warned that Israel's expanding evacuation orders across Gaza are resulting in the "forcible transfer" of people into ever-shrinking areas.

Aid agencies estimate that the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once since the war began.

In the aftermath of a strike in Khan Younis, AFP footage showed bodies on the ground, including those of a young woman and a boy in body bags, surrounded by grieving relatives.

"One by one we are getting martyred, dying in pieces," said Rania al-Jumla who lost her sister in another strike in the city.

Meanwhile Bulgaria said "it had received an official apology from Israel" after its military earlier published initial findings from an investigation stating Israeli tank fire killed the UN worker last month, who was a Bulgarian citizen.

The development came after the military initially denied operating in the area.

In a statement, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Georg Georgiev called for "such tragedies not to happen again", stressing that "the protection of humanitarian workers is a top priority".

The United Nations Office for Project Services announced on 19 March, the death of one of its employees in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah when an unidentified piece of "explosive ordnance" hit their building.

"According to the findings collected so far, the examination indicates that the fatality was caused by tank fire from IDF troops operating in the area," the military said in a statement.

"The building was struck due to assessed enemy presence and was not identified by the forces as a UN facility," it added.

At the time, an Israeli army spokesperson told AFP that "there was no IDF operational activity there and that the IDF didn't strike the UN compound".

Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein also said on 19 March that "the initial examination found no connection ... whatsoever" to Israeli military activity, though the circumstances were under investigation.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric later said "an Israeli tank" had hit the UN compound, killing a Bulgarian employee and severely wounding six others.

The killing came a day after Israel renewed its intense bombardment of the Palestinian territory following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire with Hamas Palestinian militants.

In its statement, Israel's military said it "regrets this serious incident and continues to conduct thorough review processes ... to prevent such events in the future".

"We express our deep sorrow for the loss and send our condolences to the family," it added.

The military said it had shared its initial findings with the UN.

The latest investigation findings come after the Israeli military last Sunday reported on a separate probe into the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza.

The military admitted that mistakes led to their deaths and said a field commander would be dismissed.

Gaza's health system has been devastated by Israel's 18-month-old military campaign, launched in response to the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas in 2023, putting many of the territory's hospitals out of action, killing medics and reducing crucial supplies.

Since a January ceasefire collapsed on 18 March, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.

Efforts by Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have so far failed to reconcile disputes between Israel and Hamas.

The attack on Israel by Hamas in October 2023 killed 1,200 people, and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza.

Since then, more than 51,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to health officials.