Over 100 killed in Israel Gaza strikes

Tel Aviv says it still backs ceasefire

GAZA CITY:

Israel said it struck an arms dump in Gaza on Wednesday, hours after the deadliest night of bombing since the start of a US-brokered truce, warning it would continue to operate to take out perceived threats.

The military announced it had carried out a precision strike on a site in the Beit Lahia area of northern Gaza where it said weapons were being stockpiled for "an imminent terror attack".

Israeli troops, it said, would remain deployed in "accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat".

Hamas-run Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP that one Palestinian was killed in the latest strike — and that 104 — including 46 children and 24 women -- had died in the previous night's bombardment.

The Israeli military launched a wave of bombing after one of its soldiers was killed in Gaza on Tuesday. By mid-morning on Wednesday it said it had begun "renewed enforcement of the ceasefire".

Both US President Donald Trump and regional mediator Qatar said they expected the ceasefire to hold, but inside Gaza displaced families were losing hope.

"We had just started to breathe again, trying to rebuild our lives, when the bombardment came back," said 31-year-old Khadija al-Husni, a displaced mother living with her children under canvas at a school in Al-Shati refugee camp.

"It's a crime. Either there is a truce or a war — it can't be both. The children couldn't sleep; they thought the war was over."

'We're exhausted'

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said the report of so many dead was appalling and urged all sides not to let peace "slip from our grasp", echoing calls from Britain, Germany and the European Union for the parties to recommit to the ceasefire.

In the central city of Deir el-Balah, in a tent near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, 40-year-old Jalal Abbas was close to despair and accused the Israelis of using false pretexts to resume their campaign.