Strikes across Gaza kill at least 92 as Israel prepares to ramp up its
offensive
[May 08, 2025]
By WAFAA SHURAFA and TIA GOLDENBERG
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at
least 92 people, including women, children and two journalists,
officials said Wednesday, as Israel prepares to ramp up its campaign in
the strip, with the devastating war now entering its 20th month.
Two Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday targeted an area in central Gaza,
killing at least 33 people and wounding 86, including several children,
though the actual death toll is likely higher, according to health
officials.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes.
This came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday
there is “doubt” about the survival of three hostages previously
believed alive in Gaza. The statement was a day after U.S. President
Donald Trump said only 21 of 24 hostages believed alive had survived.
The news sent families of remaining captives in Gaza into panic.
The new bloodshed Wednesday comes days after Israel approved a plan to
intensify its operations in the Palestinian enclave, which would include
seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing
Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution
along with private security companies.
Israel is also calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to carry
out the plan. Israel says the plan will be gradual and will not be
implemented until after Trump wraps up his visit to the region later
this month.
Any escalation of fighting would likely drive up the death toll. And
with Israel already controlling some 50% of Gaza, increasing its hold on
the territory, for an indefinite amount of time, could open up the
potential for a military occupation, which would raise questions about
how Israel plans to have the territory governed, especially at a time
when it is considering how to implement Trump’s vision to take over
Gaza.
The Israeli offensive has so far killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza,
many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health
officials who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Israel blames Hamas for the death toll, saying it operates from civilian
infrastructure, including schools.
Strikes target crowds in Gaza City
Wednesday's strikes included two attacks on a crowded market area in
Gaza City, health officials said.
Footage posted online reportedly showed the aftermath with men found
dead, including one still seated in a chair inside a Thai restaurant
used by locals as a gathering spot, and several children lying
motionless on the ground, covered in blood.
Journalist Yahya Sobeih, who freelanced for several local outlets, was
among those killed, according to Gaza’s media office. He had recently
shared a photo on Instagram of his newborn daughter.
Victims of the blasts, some with severe injuries, were taken to nearby
Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza health ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi
told The Associated Press.
Another local journalist, Nour Abdu, was killed while covering an attack
early Wednesday morning at a school turned shelter in Gaza City, the
media office said. That strike killed 16 people, according to officials
at Al-Ahli Hospital, while strikes in other areas killed at least 16
others.
And an attack Tuesday night on a school sheltering hundreds of displaced
Palestinians killed 27 people, officials from the Al-Aqsa Hospital said,
including nine women and three children. The school has been struck
repeatedly since the war began.
In Bureij, an urban refugee camp, paramedics and rescuers rushed to pull
people out of a blaze after a large column of smoke and fires pierced
the dark skies above the school shelter.
Trump jars Israelis with remark on hostage figures
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing
1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
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Trump on Wednesday said his administration will soon have more to say on
a plan for Gaza — which may include a new push for a ceasefire between
Hamas and Israel, the release of hostages and an influx of aid to
Palestinians.
“You’ll be knowing probably in the next 24 hours,” Trump told reporters
in the Oval Office.
He had stunned many in Israel a day earlier when he declared that only
21 of the 59 hostages remaining in Gaza are still alive. Israel
previously insisted the figure stands at 24, although an Israeli
official said there was “serious concern” for the lives of three
captives. The official said there has been no sign of life from those
three, whom the official did not identify. He said that until proven
otherwise, the three are considered to be alive. The official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details related to the
war, said the families of the captives were updated on those
developments.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing the
families of the captives, demanded from Israel's government that if
there is “new information being kept from us, give it to us
immediately.” It also called for Netanyahu to halt the war in Gaza until
all hostages are returned. “This is the most urgent and important
national mission,” it said on a post on X.
Since Israel ended a ceasefire with the Hamas militant group in
mid-March, it has unleashed fierce strikes on Gaza that have killed
hundreds and captured swaths of territory. Before the truce ended,
Israel halted all humanitarian aid into the territory, including food,
fuel and water, setting off what is believed to be the worst
humanitarian crisis in 19 months of war.
World Central Kitchen, the food charity, said it had run out of supplies
after serving 130 million meals in Gaza over 18 months and could no
longer offer bread or meals at most of its centers. The group, in social
media posts, urged Israel to allow loaded trucks it has waiting at the
border to enter Gaza.
Key interlocutors Qatar and Egypt said Wednesday that mediation efforts
were “ongoing and consistent.” But Israel and Hamas remain far apart on
how they see the war ending. Israel says it won't end the war until
Hamas' governing and military capabilities are dismantled, something it
has failed to do in 19 months of war.
Hamas says it is prepared to release all of the hostages for an end to
the war and a long-term truce with Israel.
The US-Houthi deal does not appear to cover Israel
Against the backdrop of the plans to intensify the campaign in Gaza,
fighting has also escalated between Israel and Iranian-backed Houthi
rebels in Yemen.
The Houthis fired a ballistic missile earlier this week that landed on
the grounds of Israel's main international airport. Israel responded
with a series of airstrikes over two days, whose targets included the
airport in Yemen's capital, Sanaa.
The Houthis have been striking Israel and targets in a main Red Sea
shipping route since the war began in solidarity with the Palestinians.
On Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. would halt a nearly two-monthlong
campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, after the rebel group agreed not
to target U.S. ships.
Israel does not appear to be covered by the U.S.-Houthi agreement.
The Israeli official said the deal came as a surprise to Israel and that
it was concerned by it because of what it meant for the continuation of
hostilities between it and the Houthis.
___
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Fatma
Khaled in Cairo and White House Correspondent Zeke Miller in Washington
contributed to this report.
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