More than 74 Palestinians, mainly women and children, were attacked by a wave of attacks in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli attack, deepening the already disastrous losses after 19 months of relentless bombing.
At least 57 people were killed overnight, until Thursday, attacked in a residential area in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to local health officials. Medical staff at the Nasser Medical Complex reported a large influx of casualties, many of which were children.
Displaced Palestinian Hasan Moqbel described the ongoing attack as a war against civilians when speaking on Al Jazeera. "They have been bombing Gaza for 19 months. What is left of Gaza? Innocent children are dying. There is no armed activity here. Most of them are dead elderly people."
There are people killed in Palestinian journalist Hassan Samour. When Israel strikes targeted their houses in the small town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, he and several members of his family were killed.
Another Palestinian journalist, Hassan Aslih, was killed in an emergency room at the Israeli drone attack on Nasser Hospital. He has been treated for injuries sustained during previous Israeli strikes.
According to the Commission on Protecting Journalists (CPJ), Israel has killed more than 170 journalists and media workers since October 7, 2023, making Gaza one of the deadliest press circles in the world.
The latest killings triggered new forced displacement. Thousands of Gaza markets fled after the Israeli military issued a sudden forced evacuation order.
Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud reported scenes of panic and fear as residents were crowded with their property and tried to escape the expected attack.
“We see family members carrying their own property and taking to the streets,” Mahmoud said. "Children and elderly people are carrying everything they can carry... They don't know where to go. There is no safe place for these people - the so-called shelter has been blown up by Israeli bombs."
Meanwhile, the Israeli government appears to be laying the foundation for the parallel upgrade of the occupied West Bank.
Finance Minister Bezales Smotrich, a key figure in the Israeli far-right alliance, openly called on military forces to destroy Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, with witnesses of the destruction witnessed by Gaza.
"Just as we are flattening Rafa, Khan Yunis and Gaza, we must flatten the horror hub," Smotrich said.
Israeli forces launched a new raid on the occupied West Bank at dawn Thursday, attacking cities and refugee camps, including Tubas, Nables, Bethlehem and Dela. Residents of Qalandia, Ya'bad, Fawwar and Askar Camps also reported House raids, arrests and which rights groups described as systematic abuse.
The call for escalating violence in the West Bank is a sign of the 77th anniversary of Nakba's founding, when Zionist militias were forcibly expelled 750,000 Palestinians during the establishment of Israel in 1948.
More than 530 villages and towns were razed to the ground, and most of the Palestinian population was killed or exiled. The newly formed state of Israel occupied 78% of the historic Palestine. After the 1967 war, the remaining 22% of the West Bank and Gaza Strip were occupied by Israel and maintained military control.
Since October 2023, Israeli troops' brutal offensive in Gaza have killed nearly 53,000 Palestinians, most of whom are women and children.
As the bombing continued, death toll rose, rights groups, media freedom advocates and Palestinian civilians warned of a campaign of intentional annihilation.
As Gaza and the West Bank were attacked, Palestinians increasingly questioned whether any part of their homeland was intact.