Israeli strikes on Gaza kill more than 90 people in the last 48 hours, Palestinians say

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill over 90 people in 48 hours, including women and children, as tensions escalate.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 90 people in the last 48 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday (April 19, 2025), as Israeli troops ramp up attacks to pressure Hamas to release its hostages and disarm.

The dead include 15 people who were killed overnight, among them women and children, some of who were sheltering in a designated humanitarian zone, according to hospital staff.

At least 11 people were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, several of them in a tent in the Mwasi area where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are living, hospital worker said. Israel has designated it as a humanitarian zone.

Four other people were killed in separate strikes in Rafah city, including a mother and her daughter, according to the European Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

Israel has vowed to intensify attacks across Gaza and occupy large “security zones” inside the strip. For six weeks Israel also has blockaded Gaza, barring the entry of food and other goods.

This week, aid groups raised alarm saying that thousands of children have become malnourished, and most people are barely eating one meal a day as stocks dwindle, according to the United Nations.

On Friday, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the head of the World Health Organization’s eastern Mediterranean office, urged the new U.S. ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, to push the country to lift Gaza's blockade so medicines and other aid can enter the strip. “I would wish for him to go in and see the situation firsthand,” she said.