Israeli attacks on Gaza kill dozens, including several in Gaza City shelter

Israeli strikes have continued to pound the besieged Gaza Strip, killing dozens of Palestinians including several in an attack on a school-turned shelter, local sources have said.

At least 40 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday, medical sources in the enclave told Al Jazeera. Among them are three who were killed in a strike on Deir el-Balah, and eight others who lose their lives when their home came under attack in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood.

Gaza’s civil defence said four more bodies were pulled from two nearby homes.

Meanwhile, more Palestinians succumbed to their burn wounds after an Israeli strike hit their shelter in Gaza City overnight, raising the death toll there to at least 13, with reports of six people remaining under the rubble.

Rescue teams know at least six more victims remain trapped beneath the rubble in Gaza City, but they are unable to reach them, reported Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud from the city.

“It’s not just their inability to get to the area,” he said. “They lack the heavy equipment needed to remove the rubble and recover the bodies.”

At least 105 Palestinians have sustained injuries across the territory in the past 24 hours, the Gaza Health Ministry reported.

The latest attacks came as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged Hamas to release the remaining Israeli captives in Gaza.

Hamas, which governs Gaza and rivals Abbas’s PA, has said it would release all captives in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and a permanent end to the war – but has rejected Israel’s demand to disarm, calling it a “red line”.

New ceasefire push?

Despite a monthlong deadlock in ceasefire negotiations following Israel’s resumption of attacks on March 18, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani says Doha remains engaged in talks to end the war.

A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss a new truce proposal.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing to block aid, including food and medicine, from entering Gaza for an eighth straight week.

In unusually strong criticism, France, Germany and the United Kingdom called Israel’s blockade “intolerable”.

“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change. Israel is bound under international law to allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid,” a joint European statement said.

Since Israel’s assault resumed, ending a two-month fragile ceasefire earlier this year, at least 1,928 Palestinians have been killed, pushing the total death toll above 51,300, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.