Gaza's civil defence agency said yesterday Israeli bombardment killed at least 29 people since midnight in the war-ravaged territory, which has been under Israeli aid blockade for nearly two months.

Israel resumed its campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

Civil defence official Mohammed al-Mughayyir said yesterday's toll included eight people killed in an air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza.

Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City's Al-Tuffah neighbourhood.

At least 17 more were killed in other attacks across the Palestinian territory, including one that hit a tent sheltering displaced people near the central city of Deir el-Balah, the agency said.

enough!

AFP images showed residents digging through rubble in search of bodies, which were carried away on stretchers under blankets.

At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, rescuers rushed a screaming wounded child out of an ambulance, as a group of women mourned.

"What have the children done wrong? What have we done wrong? Enough is enough. Just drop a nuclear bomb on us," said Ghada Abu Sahlul as she mourned the death of a relative.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 2,326 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418.

Israel says its renewed military campaign aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.

Days before resuming its military campaign, Israel blocked all aid entering Gaza, and UN rights chief Volker Turk said the territory was witnessing a "humanitarian catastrophe".

"Israel appears to be inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence as a group in Gaza," he said this week.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, called on Israeli occupation authorities to lift the blockade on Gaza, stating that restricting aid is starving civilians, depriving them of essential medical care, stripping them of hope, and inflicting severe collective punishment.

In a press statement, Fletcher said that the Israeli occupation made a deliberate decision two months ago to block all aid from reaching Gaza. He stressed that international law is clear and unequivocal: blocking humanitarian aid kills.

He added that as the occupying power, Israel must allow the entry of humanitarian support, stating that aid - and the civilian lives it saves - should never be used as bargaining chips.

Fletcher emphasized that humanitarian agencies are independent, neutral, and impartial, and believe all civilians deserve equal protection. He affirmed that aid workers remain ready to save as many lives as possible, despite the ongoing dangers.