Israeli military strikes killed at least 70 Palestinians across Gaza, local health authorities said, in an intensification of the bombardment as US President Donald Trump visits the Middle East.
Medics said on Wednesday that most of the dead, including women and children, were killed in a barrage of Israeli air strikes that targeted houses in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.
"Some victims are still on the road and under the rubble where rescue and civil emergency teams can't reach (them)," the Health Ministry statement said.
Medics said Israeli strikes killed around 50 people in the northern town of Jabalia and its refugee camp. The official news agency Wafa said civil defence rescuers are struggling with limited capabilities to remove victims from under the rubble of the struck buildings in the area.
A medical source told Anadolu that five more people were killed in separate air strikes targeting a civilian gathering in Gaza City and a home in the southern city of Khan Younis.
In southern Gaza, a man, his wife, and their two daughters were killed in an Israeli strike on their tent in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis. Also in southeastern Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike hit a home in the Al-Fukhari area, killing 10 people, according to the local Al-Aqsa radio.
Trump visit
Palestinians hope Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will provide pressure on Israel for a ceasefire. Hamas on Monday released Edan Alexander, the last known living American hostage it had been holding.
Trump said in Riyadh on Tuesday that more hostages would follow Alexander and that the people of Gaza deserved a better future. He is not visiting Israel during his Middle East trip.
Ceasefire efforts have faltered, with Hamas and Israel trading blame. Hamas talked to the United States and Egyptian and Qatari mediators to arrange Alexander's release, and Israel has sent a team to Doha to begin a new round of talks.
On Tuesday, Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Adam Boehler met hostage families in Tel Aviv and said they could now see a better chance of an agreement for the prisoners' release following the deal over Alexander.
The US has also presented a plan to reopen humanitarian aid deliveries in Gaza using private contractors. Israel, which imposed a total blockade of supplies going into Gaza from March 2, has endorsed the plan.
 
It has been rejected by the United Nations and international aid agencies, and details, including funding and donors, remain unclear.
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Source: TRT