![\"Reuters](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/0999\/live\/b8653d70-5443-11f0-aa04-63f097c9ce41.jpg.webp\")
Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nAt least 81 Palestinians have been killed and more than 400 injured in Israeli strikes across Gaza in the 24 hours until midday on Saturday, the Hamas-run health ministry said.<\/p>\n
In one incident, at least 11 people, including children, were killed after a strike near a stadium in Gaza City, Al-Shifa hospital staff and witnesses told news agencies. The stadium was being used to house displaced people, living in tents.<\/p>\n
Footage verified by the BBC shows people digging through the sand with their bare hands and spades to find bodies.<\/p>\n
The BBC has contacted the Israeli military for comment.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful a ceasefire could be agreed in the next week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Qatari mediators said they hoped US pressure could achieve a deal, following a truce between Israel and Iran that ended the 12-day conflict between the countries.<\/p>\n
In March, a two-month ceasefire collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The ceasefire deal – which started on 19 January – was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage.<\/p>\n
Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have intensified their efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.<\/p>\n
A rally was organised on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv calling for a deal to free the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Organisers said “the time has come to end the fighting and bring everyone home in one phase”.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks in Gaza continue. Friday evening’s strike near the Palestine Stadium in Gaza City killed at least 11 people, hospital staff and witnesses said.<\/p>\n
One witness said they were sitting when they “suddenly heard a huge explosion” after a road was hit.<\/p>\n
“This area was packed with tents – now the tents are under the sand. We spent hours digging with our bare hands,” Ahmed Qishawi told the Reuters news agency. <\/p>\n
He said there are “no wanted people here, nor any terrorists as they [Israelis] claim… [there are] only civilian residents, children, who were targeted with no mercy,” he said.<\/p>\n
The BBC has verified footage showing civilians and emergency services digging through the sandy ground with their hands and spades to find bodies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Fourteen more people were reported killed, some of them children, in strikes on an apartment block and a tent in the al-Mawasi area.<\/p>\n
The strike in al-Mawasi killed three children and their parents, who died while they were asleep, relatives told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n
“What did these children do to them? What is their fault?” the children’s grandmother, Suad Abu Teima, told the news agency.<\/p>\n
More people were reported killed on Saturday afternoon after an air strike on the Tuffah neighbourhood near Jaffa School, where hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering. <\/p>\n
The strike killed at least eight people, including five children, the Palestinian health ministry said.<\/p>\n
One witness Mohammed Haboub told Reuters that his nephews, father and the children of his neighbours were killed in the strike.<\/p>\n
“We didn’t do anything to them, why do they harm us? Did we harm them? We are civilians,” he told the news agency.<\/p>\n
The health ministry said ambulance and civil defence crews were facing difficulties in reaching a number of victims trapped under the rubble and on the roads, due to the impossibility of movement in some of the affected areas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet commented on these reported strikes. <\/p>\n The IDF released a statement on Saturday evening saying it had killed Hakham Muhammad Issa al-Issa, a senior figure in Hamas’s military wing, in the area of Sabra in Gaza City on Friday.<\/p>\n The IDF said he was one of the founding members of Hamas’s military wing, a member of Hamas’s general security council, and played a “significant role in the planning and execution” of Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.<\/p>\n The Israeli military launched its bombardment of Gaza in response to the attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n More than 56,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250616-143050-043f96f72f-web-2.23.1-5\/grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"Reuters](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/21f9\/live\/3c4d0d30-5443-11f0-aa04-63f097c9ce41.jpg.webp\")
Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n