The enclave’s Ministry of Health specified that these numbers are preliminary because many missing people are under the rubble.

Civil Defense spokesman in the territory, Mahmoud Basal, reported that Israel carried out more than 200 airstrikes in just a few hours.

Al-Adwa Hospital reported receiving numerous bodies, including those of six minors, while the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, explained that medical teams are having difficulty reaching the wounded. “This is a new crime against our people,” he said in statements to the Qatari television station Al Jazeera.

As part of the new phase of the conflict, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered the evacuation of large areas in the northern Gaza Strip, including neighborhoods in the cities of Gaza and Beit Hanoun.

The new military campaign, dubbed “Might and Sword,” includes intense aerial bombardments in its first phase, according to the online version of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. The offensive aims to pressure the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to accept Israeli conditions for a prisoner exchange, it said.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, among those killed Tuesday in Gaza was Issam Saalis, who served as prime minister in that territory. The Gaza Government Press Office also identified the bodies of Bahjat Abu Sultan, head of Hamas’s internal operations and security department, Ahmed Omar al-Hatta and Mohamoud Abu Watfa, directors-general of the Ministry of Justice and the Interior, respectively.

The Gaza Government Press Office condemned these attacks as a blatant violation of international and humanitarian conventions, and emphasized that the Israeli occupation continues its massacres as part of an ongoing genocide against our people. Among the many casualties are entire families, including numerous women, the elderly, and children.

The renewed aggression was harshly criticized by Palestinian factions as well as Israeli politicians.

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