Zürcher Nachrichten - Fifty reported dead in Gaza as Israel steps up attacks on main city

Israel has said it intends to capture the territory's largest urban centre, which it describes as one of the last strongholds of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the Gaza war.

The United Nations and members of the international community have warned against the assault for fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza City, where the UN has declared a famine.

Britain, France and Germany called in a joint statement for an "immediate" halt to the offensive, saying it was causing civilian casualties and destroying key infrastructure.

Gaza's civil defence agency said 35 people were killed in the city on Friday, along with another 15 in other parts of the territory.

The Israeli military said it was continuing "its wide-scale strikes on terrorist infrastructure and high-rise structures" in Gaza City.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

Israel began targeting tall buildings in the area a week ago, saying they were being used by Hamas.

It said Friday that it would "intensify the pace of targeted strikes" in order to disrupt Hamas and "reduce the threat to our troops as part of preparations for the next stages of the operation".

- Nothing but pieces -

A single strike in the northwest of Gaza City killed 14 people, the civil defence said.

"The majority of them are children and women," relative Hazem al Sultan told AFP.

"Only two bodies were intact, while the rest were body parts."

At the city's Al-Shifa hospital, mourners prayed over the the dead wrapped in white shrouds, some of them the size of children.

The military did not respond to a request for comment on the strike.

While the army has issued multiple evacuation warnings for Gaza City, many residents have told AFP they have nowhere else to go, noting Israel has repeated struck the area in the south to which it has urged people to move.

The UN estimates there were around one million people in and around Gaza City as of late August, and has warned that evacuating them all could have disastrous consequences.

The army said it was taking steps to "increase the volume of aid entering into the humanitarian area" in the south in preparation for receiving displaced Gaza City residents.

The main organisation representing the families of hostages taken during Hamas's 2023 attack has also criticised the planned Gaza City offensive, saying Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was putting the surviving captives in "life-threatening danger... without any clear purpose or strategic goal".

Of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas assault, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,756 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.

N.Zaugg--NZN