Safaa al-Najjar's blood-stained face distorts as she takes in the wrapped remains of her sons: Moaz, six weeks old, and Motaz, who was one and a half years old.
I gave them lunch and put them to bed as usual. Then, I don't know what happened, the world turned upside down... What have they done wrong, laments Safaa al-Najjar according to AP's reporting.
Her family is one of several that have been hit by Israel's escalated bombardment. Outside Nasser Hospital, rows of wrapped bodies lie, bundles being picked up by mourners and buried.
Similar scenes are playing out at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. There, an AP journalist counted over 20 wrapped bodies on Friday.
No Aid Deliveries
More than 60 people have been killed in Gaza on Friday, according to hospital reports. The Civil Defense in Gaza, controlled by the terrorist-stamped Hamas, reports that earlier nights' intense raids have taken over 120 lives and injured several dozen.
Israel claims that the targets of the raids are Hamas representatives, and Prime Minister Netanyahu promised the other day to step up the war. But a large proportion of the dead are children and women.
At the same time, hunger and the threat of starvation are acute in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. UN agencies have been sounding the alarm for weeks that food supplies are running out and medical equipment is exhausted.
has blocked all humanitarian aid to Gaza since March 2, according to reports, in order to put further pressure on Hamas, whose large-scale attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, triggered the war.
High-ranking Hamas representatives, including politician Basem Naim, say, however, that resumed aid deliveries – access to food, water, and medicine – are a minimum requirement for "constructive negotiations".
Rubio: Not "Insensitive"
American representatives have engaged during the spring to achieve a ceasefire, but at the same time, the USA has continuously given military support to Israel during the war. Foreign Minister Marco Rubio urges Hamas to give up and release the hostages the organization holds when British BBC asks him if the USA still backs Israel's warfare.
We are not immune or in any way insensitive to the suffering of the Gazans, and I know that there are opportunities to give them help, says Rubio, but adds that peace cannot be skipped as long as Hamas exists.
President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday again that the USA wants to take over Gaza and create a "freedom zone".
