Israeli strikes kill 91 in Gaza; Hamas fires back rockets

CAIRO/GAZA: At least 91 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in air strikes across Gaza on Thursday after Israel resumed bombing and ground operations, the enclave's health ministry said.

After two months of relative peace, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign.

Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on residential neighbourhoods, ordering people out of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns in the north, the Shejaia district in Gaza City and towns on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis in the south. A day after sending tanks into central Gaza, the Israeli military said it had also begun conducting ground operations in the north of the enclave, along the coastal route in Beit Lahiya. Israel's military also said it had killed the head of Hamas's internal security agency in an air strike on the enclave, the latest official targeted in recent days.

Israeli forces "in recent days... struck and eliminated the terrorist Rashid Jahjouh, head of the Hamas General Security Service, who assumed his position after the elimination of his predecessor, Sami Oudeh, in July 2024," military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

Hamas, which had not retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its fighters fired rockets into Israel. There were no reports of casualties from the rockets, fired at Tel Aviv. Israeli military said they were either intercepted or fell in open areas.