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DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA STRIP —Israeli warplanes struck two central Gaza refugee camps Sunday, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush the territory's Hamas rulers, despite U.S. appeals for even brief pauses to get aid to desperate civilians.
Airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp, killing at least 40 people and wounding 34 others, Gaza's Health Ministry said. The camp is in the zone where Israel's military had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge as it focused its offensive on the north.
An AP reporter at a nearby hospital saw eight dead children, including a baby, brought in after the strike. A surviving child was led down the corridor, her clothes caked in dust, an expression of shock on her face.
Arafat Abu Mashaia, who lives in the camp, said the Israeli airstrike flattened several multistory homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.
"It was a true massacre," he said. "All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance [fighters] here."
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Another airstrike hit a house near a school at the Bureji refugee camp in central Gaza, and staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital told the AP at least 13 people were killed. The camp is home to an estimated 46,000 people and was struck Thursday as well.
Despite appeals and overseas demonstrations, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas and accusing it of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel's strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of civilians killed.
On the ground, Israeli forces in Gaza have reported finding stashes of weapons at times, including explosives, suicide drones and missiles.
In northern Gaza, swaths of residential neighborhoods have been leveled in airstrikes. The U.N. office for humanitarian affairs says more than half the remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in U.N.-run facilities.
Israeli planes again dropped leaflets urging people to head south during a four-hour window Sunday. Crowds could be seen walking down Gaza's main north-south highway carrying baggage and pets and pushing wheelchairs. Others led donkey carts.
One man said they had to walk 500 meters with their hands raised while passing Israeli troops. Another described seeing bodies in damaged cars along the road. "The children saw tanks for the first time. Oh, world, have mercy on us," said one Palestinian who declined to give his name.
Israeli's military said a one-way corridor would continue for residents in the north to flee to the southern part of Gaza.
The U.N. said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes. Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities is running out. No fuel has come for nearly one month, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said.
Gaza's Health Ministry said more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, a number likely to rise as Israeli troops advance into dense, urban neighborhoods.
Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are 4,008 children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of civilians and fighters.
The Israeli military said 29 of its soldiers have died during the ground operation.
In the occupied West Bank, at least two Palestinians were shot dead during an Israeli arrest raid in Abu Dis, just outside Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The military said a militant who had set up an armed cell and fired at Israeli forces was killed.
At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war, mainly during violent protests and gunbattles during raids.
Many Israelis have called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign and for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Some families are traveling abroad to try to make sure the hostages aren't forgotten.
Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the October 7 attack on his country that killed more than 1,400 people. Ongoing Palestinian rocket fire has forced tens of thousands of people in Israel to leave their homes.
In another reflection of widespread anger in Israel, a junior government minister, Amihai Eliyahu, suggested in a radio interview that Israel could drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. He later called the remarks "metaphorical." Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings, a move with no practical effect.