Israeli strikes kill 60 in Gaza as Trump renews call for ‘freedom zone’

Israeli military strikes killed at least 60 people in Gaza on Thursday, Palestinian medics said, as Donald Trump continued his Middle East tour by repeating his promise to take over the area and “make it a freedom zone.”

Most of the victims, including women and children, were killed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in airstrikes that hit homes and tents.

The dead included local journalist Hassan Samour, who worked for the Hamas-run Aqsa radio station and was killed along with 11 family members when their home was struck, the medics said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has intensified its offensive in Gaza as it tries to eradicate Hamas in retaliation for the deadly attacks the Palestinian militant group carried out on Israel in 2023.

With most of the 2.3 million people in Gaza internally displaced, some residents of the tiny enclave say suffering is greater now than at the time of the 1948 Nakba.

“The truth is, we live in a constant state of violence and displacement,” said Ahmed Hamad, a Palestinian in Gaza City who has been displaced multiple times. “Wherever we go, we face attacks. Death surrounds us everywhere."

Palestinian health officials say the Israeli attacks have escalated since Trump started a visit to the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that many Palestinians had hoped he would use to push for a truce.

Little has come of new indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas led by Trump's envoys and Qatar and Egyptian mediators in Doha.

No humanitarian assistance has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation in Gaza.

In Abu Dhabi, the US president removed his shoes for a tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

“It's beautiful,” Trump said.

He sidestepped a reporter's question on whether Israel has been an obstacle to peace talks in Gaza.

Instead, Trump said “we're working very hard on Gaza,” which he described as “a territory of death and destruction for many years.”

He added: “I'd be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone, let some good things happen.”

Sheikh Zayed, founder of the UAE, is buried in the mosque's main courtyard.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.