Hamas Health Ministry Says Israeli Strikes Kill Dozens

Israeli Strikes Kill Dozens in Gaza, Hamas Health Ministry Says

The New York Times

May 15, 2025

By Aaron Boxerman

Photographs by Saher Alghorra

Reporting from Jerusalem

Carrying a body in Gaza. credit  Saher Alghorra

Israel intensified its military campaign against Hamas, despite a U.S.-backed push for the two sides to agree a new cease-fire.

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 on 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.

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

Rescue workers outside of a building in Jabaliya that housed the Al-Tawbah Medical Center.Credit Saher Alghorra

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, 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 cease-fire, 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 sweeping ground offensive that government officials have laid out. But Israeli forces have launched a series of deadly airstrikes across the Gaza Strip 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 Muhammad Sinwar, one of Hamas’s top leaders in Gaza.

Mr. 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 Mr. Sinwar.

Transporting the body of a person killed in a strike in Jabaliya. Credit Saher Alghorra

A child in the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza after his father was killed. Credit Saher Alghorra

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 that 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.

Friends and family mourning the loss of a man who was killed on Thursday. Credit Saher Alghorra

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 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 cease-fire talks with Hamas to free the remaining hostages. The office of Mr. Netanyahu said he had spoken with Steve Witkoff, Mr. 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.

The Israeli military said it had hit more than 130 targets over the past two days in Gaza. Credit Saher Alghorra

Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.

Copyright 2025 The New York Times Company