Israeli navy struck a seaside cafe in Gaza City killing at least 39 people, including journalist Ismail Abu Hatab.
Israeli forces have bombed a cafe, a school and food distribution sites in Gaza, killing at least 95 Palestinians, and attacked a hospital, wounding several more people.
At least 62 of the victims of Monday’s attacks were in Gaza City and the north of the territory.
The figure includes 39 people who were killed in an Israeli strike on a seaside cafe, Al-Baqa cafeteria, in northern Gaza City. Dozens more were wounded.
Among the dead was journalist Ismail Abu Hatab, as well as women and children who had gathered at the cafe.
One witness said that Israeli fighter jets carried out the strike.
“We found people torn apart,” said Yahya Sharif. “This place wasn’t affiliated with anyone – no politics and no military association whatsoever. It was packed with people including children for a birthday party.”
The bombing flattened the cafe and left a huge crater in the ground.
media’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said the attack on the cafe occurred “without any warning”.
Hamada Abu Jaradeh, who fled before the attack, said that displaced Palestinians received a five-minute threat to evacuate.
“We don’t know what to do and where to go. We have been let down by the entire world for more than 630 days. Death is with us and around us every day,” Abu Jaradeh said.
In central Gaza, Israeli forces also attacked the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, where thousands of families had sought shelter.
‘It felt like earthquakes’
Videos circulating online and verified by media showed chaos at the hospital, with people fleeing for safety as tents sheltering displaced families appeared damaged by the attack.
media’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from the scene of the hospital attack, said the army did not issue “any warnings” before the “huge explosion”.
“Its warplanes bombed a tent for the displaced inside the walls of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, resulting in injuries at the site of the bombing, material damage and directly threatening the lives of dozens of patients,” it said.
Israel has repeatedly targeted dozens of hospitals during its 22-month war on Gaza. Human rights groups and United Nations-backed experts have accused Israel of systematically destroying the enclave’s healthcare system.
In southern Gaza, an Israel air attack killed at least 15 Palestinians waiting for food at aid distribution hubs run by the controversial United States- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Khan Younis, according to sources at Nasser Medical Complex.
Fifty people were also wounded in the attack.
They are the latest victims in a wave of daily carnage at these sites, which have killed nearly 600 Palestinians since GHF took over limited aid deliveries in Gaza in late May amid a crippling Israeli blockade.
The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians were harmed at the aid distribution centres, saying that instructions had been issued to forces following “lessons learned”, and that firing incidents were under review.
This follows the Israeli news outlet Haaretz report that soldiers operating near the aid sites in Gaza have been deliberately firing on Palestinians. According to the Haaretz report, which quoted unnamed Israeli soldiers, troops were told to fire at the crowds of Palestinians and use unnecessary lethal force against people who appeared to pose no threat.
Israeli forces are also carrying out home demolitions in Khan Younis, raising fears of a new ground invasion.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, has issued more forced evacuation threats to Palestinians in large districts in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces had operated before and left behind wide-scale destruction, forcing a new wave of displacement.
“Explosions never stopped; they bombed schools and homes. It felt like earthquakes,” said Salah, 60, a father of five children, from Gaza City. “In the news, we hear a ceasefire is near. On the ground, we see death and we hear explosions.”
Israeli tanks pushed into the eastern areas of the Zeitoun suburb in Gaza City and shelled several areas in the north, while aircraft bombed at least four schools after ordering hundreds of families sheltering inside to leave, residents said.
