Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip killed at least 34 people on Saturday, according to Palestinian media, as a major hospital in southern Gaza prepared for imminent Israel Defense Forces evacuation orders of Gaza City, ahead of its planned offensive to conquer the metropolis.

The death toll in Gaza was not independently verified and does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

Israel has yet to launch its planned major offensive to capture the enclave’s largest city, but according to local aid workers, there has been a marked increase in Israeli bombardments since the beginning of August.

According to the reports, six of the people killed died while waiting for aid in the Zikim area of the northern Gaza Strip; two were killed in a drone strike on a tent in Khan Younis, and one was killed in a drone strike on a house in al-Sabra, south of Gaza City.

According to health officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Israeli strikes killed at least 14 people in southern Gaza, more than half of them women and children. The officials said the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis.

Mohamed Saada was among thousands of people who sought food from a delivery in the Zikim area on Saturday, and one of many who left empty-handed.

“I came here to bring food for my children, but couldn’t get anything, due to the huge numbers of people and the difficulty of the situation between the shootings and the trucks running over people,” he said.

The IDF has acknowledged firing warning shots at crowds that get too close to its soldiers at aid distribution sites in Gaza, but has called the death tallies exaggerated, though it hasn’t provided alternate numbers.

“The entire Gaza Strip is being bombed … In the south. In the north. Everywhere,” Abu Agala, uncle of two children killed, told The Associated........

© The Times of Israel