At least 81 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says

At least 81 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza within 24 hours until noon on Saturday, the Ministry of Health managed by Hamas said.

In an incident, at least 11 people, including children, were killed after a strike near a stadium in Gaza City, press agencies at Al-Shifa hospital said. The stadium was used to house displaced people, living in tents.

Images verified by the BBC show that people dig into the sand with bare hands and their spikes to find bodies.

The BBC contacted the Israeli army to comment.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he hoped that a cease-fire could be agreed next week.

Qatari mediators said they hoped that American pressure could conclude an agreement, following a truce between Israel and Iran which ended the 12 -day conflict between countries.

In March, a two-month ceasefire collapsed when Israel launched new strikes in Gaza. The cease -fire agreement – which started on January 19 – was set up to have three stages, but did not exceed the first step.

The second step included the establishment of a permanent ceasefire, the return of the remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel and the complete withdrawal of the Israeli Gaza forces.

On Thursday, a senior Hamas official said that the BBC mediators had intensified their efforts to negotiate a new Liberation contract for ceasefire and hostage in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain blocked.

A rally was organized on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv calling for an agreement to release the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. The organizers said that “the time has come to end the fighting and bring everyone back to home in a phase”.

Meanwhile, Israeli attacks in Gaza continue. Friday evening strike near the Palestine stadium in Gaza City killed at least 11 people, hospital staff and witnesses said.

A witness said they were sitting when they “suddenly heard a huge explosion” after a hit.

“This area was filled with tents – now the tents are under the sand. We spent hours digging with bare hands,” Ahmed Qishawi told the Reuters news agency.

He said that there were “no people wanted here, or terrorists like they [Israelis] claim… [there are] Only civilian residents, the children, who were mercilessly targeted, “he said.

The BBC checked the images showing that civilians and emergency services dug the sandy soil with their hands and man to find bodies.

Fourteen other people were killed, some of them, in strikes on a building and a tent in the Al-Mawasi region.

The strike in Al-Mawasi killed three children and their parents, who died during their sleep, told the Associated Press.

“What did these children do with them? What is their fault?” Children’s grandmother Suad Abu Teima told the news agency.

More people were killed on Saturday afternoon after an air strike in the Tuffah district, near the Jaffa school, where hundreds of displaced Gazans took shelter.

The strike killed at least eight people, including five children, said the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

A witness Mohammed Haboub told Reuters that his nephews, his father and the children of his neighbors had been killed in the strike.

“We didn’t do anything to them, why do we harm us? We hurt them? We are civilians,” he told the news agency.

The Ministry of Health said that the ambulance and civil defense teams faced difficulties in reaching a number of victims trapped under the rubble and on the roads, due to the impossibility of moving into certain affected areas.

Israeli defense forces (FDI) have not yet commented on these reported strikes.

The FDI published a statement on Saturday evening saying that she had killed Hakham Muhammad Issa al-Issa, a senior figure in the Hamas military wing, in the Sabra district of Gaza City on Friday.

The FDI said that he was one of the founding members of the Hamas military wing, a member of the Hamas General Security Council, and played an “important role in planning and execution” of the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack against Israel.

The Israeli army launched its Gaza bombing in response to the attack, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 56,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Ministry of Health managed by Hamas in the territory.