Palestinians wait for an airdrop of aid in Gaza City on August 7, 2025. The Jordanian military and other air forces began dropping aid from aircraft into Gaza by parachute in an effort to get more supplies into the Palestinian enclave amid a growing humanitarian crisis. File Photo by Mahmoud Issa/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Israeli forces intensified a major aerial assault on Gaza City, killing at least 12 people and causing extensive damage overnight, ahead of a planned military operation to take control of the city, according to Palestinian authorities.
The city's residential districts of Zeitoun and Sabra had been hit by airstrikes for the third straight day, sustaining "massive damage to civilian homes," the Hamas-run Gaza civil defense agency said.
The fatalities, which occurred on Wednesday morning in an airstrike on a house in the east of the city, were among 39 killed across the Gaza Strip, including 19 people who were seeking humanitarian aid, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
The latest casualties came as the foreign ministers of Britain, Japan, Canada, Australia and Switzerland joined the European Union in condemning the use of lethal forces at aid distribution sites and calling for urgent action to address famine "unfolding before our eyes" in Gaza.
