Separate attacks on a restaurant and school in Gaza City kill dozens of people.
A reconnaissance drone strike targeted an area near the Thai and Palmyra restaurants on al-Wehda Street in Gaza City on Wednesday. Two missiles were fired at two locations at the same time, 100 metres (110 yards) apart, one inside a restaurant and another at an intersection, killing at least 17 people.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the attack hit one of the few places where Palestinians are able to get a meal.
“The tables and chairs are all thrown around, and blood stains the ground as a result of severe bleeding,” Mahmoud said, reporting from a crowd of residents and street vendors examining the destruction after the attack.
At the site of the attack on the nearby intersection, Mahmoud said people were on the ground “soaked in blood and shredded into pieces”.
Another attack in Gaza City killed 13 people at al-Karama School in the Tuffah neighbourhood
Other Israeli strikes on Wednesday were scattered across Gaza. Three people were killed and several wounded in a strike on a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Another eight people – including a father, his children and cousins – were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis. Five were killed in a strike on one home.
Another three people, including a child, died when a tent shelter was attacked in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. A husband and wife were also killed when a house was hit in Bani Suheila village in eastern Gaza.
The dead also included four people whose bodies were recovered from under the rubble of an Israeli attack earlier this week on a school sheltering displaced people in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. The Palestinian Civil Defence agency said on Tuesday night that more than 30 people had been killed and dozens wounded there.
‘Scrambling for cover’
Mahmoud said Palestinians were “scrambling for cover” as air strikes and explosions struck residential buildings and evacuation centres across Gaza.
“We have confirmed that a farmer was killed in the eastern part of Khan Younis, in Abasan, as he was trying to harvest what he managed to plant in the past couple of months, making up for the lack of food,” Mahmoud said.
“This is one of the elements that we have been seeing quite visibly. Not only are they suffering on a daily basis because of the enforced starvation and dehydration, they [also] try to plant their own food, but they are deprived, and their abilities to do so are [thwarted] by the ongoing attacks,” he added.
The intensified attacks have been compounded by an Israeli blockade on essential supplies since March 2, leaving the enclave deprived of fuel and food, including flour. Aid groups have said food supplies are close to total depletion.
The United States-based World Central Kitchen charity said it has halted work in the Gaza Strip after it was prevented by Israel from bringing in aid and ran out of supplies.
“After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza,” it said on Wednesday in a post on X.
A mother of six sheltering at a facility run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) told the agency her family only had bread after they had run out of all other types of food.
“The State of Israel must lift the siege,” UNRWA wrote on X on Wednesday.
“There must be a concerted international effort to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new unseen level,” it added.
Gaza’s health sector is also bearing the brunt of the ongoing attacks and blockade. At least 88 percent of beds in hospitals are occupied, and their staffs are trying to treat patients as they face shortages of medical supplies.
Ceasefire talks
On Wednesday, Egypt and Qatar, which both mediated this year’s ceasefire alongside the US, reaffirmed their commitment to an agreement aimed at ending the “unprecedented humanitarian crisis and alleviating the suffering of civilians by fostering the necessary conditions for achieving a comprehensive ceasefire”.
“The two countries emphasise that attempts to sow discord among brotherly nations – whether through the casting of doubt, distortion, or media escalation – will not succeed, nor will they deter the two nations from continuing their joint efforts to end the war and the resulting humanitarian catastrophe,” a joint statement read, adding that the countries were working with the US to reach a deal.
