GAZA CITY (Dispatches) — At least 51 Palestinians were killed in a new wave of Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip Saturday, citing local hospital sources said. 
The death toll included at least 27 civilians seeking humanitarian aid, underscoring the devastating toll of Israel’s relentless military campaign against the besieged territory.
The Israeli assaults targeted multiple locations, including Khan Younis and Gaza City, where five Palestinians — among them two women — lost their lives, Wafa news agency reported, quoting local officials. Drone strikes struck the Al-Tuwam area in northern Gaza City, killing three Palestinians and wounding dozens more.
A separate air attack on the Al-Shurafa family home in Gaza’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood resulted in an unknown number of casualties, further deepening the human tragedy. 
Meanwhile, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis confirmed that a woman was killed during an air strike on the Al-Amal neighborhood, while another woman was fatally shot near an aid distribution point southwest of the city.
In a particularly harrowing detail, emergency teams retrieved eight bodies from rubble in Gaza City’s Zeytoun neighborhood following heavy Israeli bombardments. The ongoing strikes continue to exacerbate the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where hospitals, schools, and residential areas are under constant threat.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed about 60,300 Palestinians and injured nearly 150,000 across Gaza, a staggering human cost documented by local health authorities. These figures paint a grim picture of the systematic violence inflicted upon Gaza’s population amid a blockade and military siege widely condemned as collective punishment.
Israeli writer David Grossman has publicly denounced the onslaught on Gaza as “genocide,” marking a rare and powerful acknowledgment from within settler society of the magnitude of the atrocities. 
“For years I refused to use the term ‘genocide’. But now I can’t help but use it,” Grossman told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, describing the ongoing massacre as a “broken heart” and an “avalanche” of destruction and suffering.
Hamas, the Palestinian resistance movement governing Gaza, reaffirmed its unwavering stance on Saturday, declaring it will not lay down arms unless the full rights of Palestinians are restored, especially the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
“Our armed resistance cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights,” Hamas stated. The movement also emphasized that it remains ready to resume negotiations only after urgent humanitarian aid reaches Gaza and the siege is lifted, a condition Israeli officials appear increasingly unwilling to meet.
Last week, the United States and Israel abruptly pulled out of ceasefire talks with Hamas despite reports of progress, signaling a hardening stance that demands total disarmament of Palestinian resistance and the return of all Israeli captives. Israeli officials, including extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, have publicly rejected partial agreements, instead insisting on the complete dismantling of Hamas and exile of its members as the sole “acceptable deal.”
In response, Palestinian leaders have stressed that any surrender of arms without achieving sovereignty and justice would amount to surrendering their legitimate rights under international law.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials visiting Gaza attempted to portray their humanitarian efforts as substantial. Envoys Steve Witkoff and Mike Huckabee toured aid distribution points managed by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, even as at least 859 

Palestinians have been killed attempting to receive aid amid ongoing Israeli attacks.
The visit was widely denounced by Palestinian civilians and humanitarian workers as a superficial gesture, heavily controlled by Israeli military supervision, which failed to convey the full extent of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe.
“This was a PR stunt,” said Ellie Burgos, a critical care nurse volunteering in Gaza. “What they saw was not the reality on the ground.”
As the siege continues unabated, international calls for an immediate ceasefire and lifting of the blockade grow louder. Humanitarian organizations warn that Gaza teeters on the brink of famine and complete collapse, a direct consequence of the relentless Israeli offensive.