Palestinian rescuers reported 120 people killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes on blockaded Gaza, where a US-backed organisation said it intends to begin distributing aid by the end of the month.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said the death toll from Israeli bombardment since dawn on Thursday had risen to 120.
The World Health Organization said the last hospital in Gaza providing cancer and cardiac care had stopped functioning after an Israeli attack on Tuesday left it “severely damaged and inaccessible”.
UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese accused Israel of “killing what’s left of humanity”.
Following the latest deaths, Hamas called on the international community to hold Israel to account for what it described as a “barbaric escalation”.
Israel says its aid stoppage and military pressure are meant to force Hamas to free the remaining hostages seized during the October 2023 attack that triggered the war.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the entry of aid into Gaza was “the minimum requirement for a conducive and constructive negotiation environment”.
“Access to food, water, and medicine is a fundamental human right, not a subject for negotiation,” he added.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-supported NGO, said it would begin distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza this month after talks with Israeli officials.
The United Nations on Thursday ruled out involvement with the initiative.
“As we’ve stated repeatedly, this particular distribution plan does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, and independence, and we will not be participating in this,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged the criticism of the plan and said Washington was “open to an alternative if someone has a better one”.
Trump said he wanted the United States to “get involved” in Gaza.
“I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good … let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone,” he said on the Qatar leg of a Gulf tour, adding he would be “proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone”.
The United Nations estimates that 70 per cent of Gaza is now either an Israeli-declared no-go zone or under evacuation order.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 2,876 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on Mar 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,010.
The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
