By Aaron Boxerman New York Times
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JERUSALEM — Israeli military strikes killed dozens across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the territory’s Health Ministry said, the latest in a wave of attacks after Israel has threatened to intensify its military campaign against Hamas.

Many more were injured in the strikes Thursday, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military said it had hit more than 130 targets over the past two days, including operatives affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in southern Gaza.

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Gaza’s Civil Defense, an emergency response organization, later reported more people were killed in strikes in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia, including one on a building that housed a medical clinic.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to significantly escalate the country’s military campaign unless Hamas lays down its arms and frees the remaining hostages. The Palestinian armed group has rejected Israel’s conditions for a ceasefire, demanding an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal in exchange for releasing the captives.

The Israeli military has yet to embark on the ground offensive that government officials have laid out. But Israeli forces have launched a series of deadly airstrikes across Gaza in recent days.

On Wednesday, Israeli strikes killed more than 75 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. That was a day after Israeli aircraft bombarded the area around the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis to try to kill Mohammad Sinwar, one of Hamas’ top leaders in Gaza.

Sinwar’s older brother, Yahya Sinwar, masterminded the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that precipitated the war, and he led Hamas before he was killed by Israeli forces last year. Neither Israel nor Hamas has publicly commented on the fate of the younger Sinwar.

The wave of recent attacks came after aid agencies warned that Gaza is on the brink of starvation. Israel has blocked food, medicine and humanitarian relief from entering the territory since March. Israel has dismissed those warnings in public, but some military officials have privately conceded that Palestinians will soon not have enough food to meet minimum daily nutritional needs unless the blockade is lifted.

The Hamas-led attack on Israel 19 months ago killed about 1,200 people. Roughly 250 others were taken to Gaza as hostages.

Israel’s attacks against Hamas have killed more than 50,000 people in Gaza, including thousands of children, according to health officials in the territory. Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 50 people had been killed in the latest strikes.

Yet despite the immense toll of Israel’s military campaign, the war has failed to either decisively subdue Hamas or force the group to free all of the hostages.

Over the weekend, the United States effectively bypassed Israel and reached an agreement with Hamas to free Edan Alexander, the last American hostage left alive in Gaza. President Donald Trump wrote on social media that he hoped it would be the “first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict.”

Israeli negotiators traveled to Qatar this week for the latest round of indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas to free the remaining hostages. The office of Netanyahu said he had spoken with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, as well as the Israeli negotiating team.

But an Israeli official familiar with the talks said there was little expectation of a breakthrough. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, spoke on condition of anonymity.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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