At least 25 Palestinians were reported to have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, according to unnamed medical sources cited by Palestinian media as Israel’s Gaza City offensive loomed and aid groups stepped up efforts to get food to Gazans.

The tolls cited by Palestinian media were not verified, and there was no comment from Hamas authorities in the Strip. The Israel Defense Forces did not comment on the reports, but said it was looking into the cases.

In one instance, a drone strike overnight in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah was said to have hit a tent housing displaced people, killing five. Among the dead were a 1-year-old, two children ages 12 and 13, and two adults.

A separate strike in Deir al-Balah early Tuesday morning killed five people, according to Palestinian media.

Another eight people were said to have been killed in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The reported deaths came after Hamas said on Monday that it had informed mediators that it accepted the ceasefire hostage release deal proposal submitted to the terror group the day before.

Sources have said that the deal involves a 60-day pause and the release of 10 living captives, as mediators scramble to find an agreement before Israel launches its planned mission to conquer Gaza City, in the enclave’s north.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to dismiss Hamas’s response, however, and signaled that Israel was moving forward with its plan to take over the Palestinian enclave’s largest city and transfer its population to the south.

“We can clearly see that Hamas is under immense pressure,” was all the premier had said.

Meanwhile, the international community was keeping up its push on Tuesday to flood the Strip with as much humanitarian aid as possible, as a ship loaded with 1,200 tons of food supplies bound for Gaza approached the port of Ashdod in southern Israel.

The Panamanian-flagged vessel was loaded with 52 containers carrying food aid such as pasta, rice, baby food and canned goods.

Israeli customs officials had screened the aid at the Cypriot port of Limassol, from where the ship departed on Monday.

Some 700 tons of aid was provided by Cyprus, purchased with money donated by the United Arab Emirates to the so-called Amalthea Fund, set up last year for donors to help with seaborne aid.

The rest came from Italy, the Maltese government, a Catholic religious order in Malta, and the Kuwaiti nongovernmental organization Al Salam Association.

“The situation is beyond dire,” Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told The Associated Press.

Cyprus was the staging area last year for 22,000 tons of aid delivered by ship directly to Gaza

© The Times of Israel