People surround the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike in front of the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 16, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Israel continues its carnage in Gaza after the deadliest day yet for Palestinians in the besieged territory since Israel resumed its war on the strip in March.
According to medical sources, 74 Palestinians have been killed so far on Friday, mostly in attacks on the northern Gaza Strip.
The Indonesian Hospital in the northern city of Beit Lahia alone had received 30 dead and dozens of injured, mostly children and women, according to a doctor at the hospital.
Meanwhile, five of the killed people and "more than 75 injured" were transferred to al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, Mohammed Saleh, acting director of the hospital, said.
"The Israeli occupation bombed the house next to mine, hitting it directly while its residents were inside," the 40-year-old, Yousef al-Sultan, from the al-Salatin area, west of Beit Lahia, told AFP, reporting "air strikes, artillery shelling and gunfire from quadcopter drones."
"There is a massive wave of displacement among civilians. Fear and panic grip us in the middle of the night," he added.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said more than 250 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza in the past 36 hours. About 150 injured people had been transferred to the Indonesian Hospital and al-Awda Hospital.
"The Zionist regime is purposefully targeting medical facilities," Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of Gaza's Health Ministry, said.
The massacres in northern Gaza came after a series of powerful Israeli strikes in the vicinity of the European Hospital in south Gaza’s Khan Yunis late Tuesday.
Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that at least 40 bunker buster bombs were used in the strike to allegedly destroy an underground complex belonging to the Palestinian resistance.
Israel launched the campaign of genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023. It has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians there so far.
In January, the Israeli regime was forced to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas given the regime’s failure to achieve any of its objectives, including the “elimination” of the Palestinian resistance movement or the release of captives.
The 42-day stage of the truce, which was marred by repeated Israeli violations, expired on March 1, but Israel is refraining from stepping into talks for the second stage of the agreement.
On March 18, the regime resumed the strikes on Gaza, breaking the nearly two-month-long ceasefire and prisoner-captive exchange agreement.
Netanyahu missing 'historic opportunity': Israeli captives’ families
Israel's main group representing families of captives still being held in Gaza has slammed prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for missing an "historic opportunity" to get them released, as US President Donald Trump concludes a visit to West Asia.
The captives’ families “woke up this morning with heavy hearts and great concern in light of reports about increased attacks in Gaza and the imminent conclusion of President Trump's visit to the region," the so-called “Hostages and Missing Families Forum” said in a statement on Friday.
"Missing this historic opportunity would be a resounding failure that will be remembered in infamy forever," the group added.
