Israeli attacks have killed at least 22 people across Gaza, 18 of them in Gaza City, as Israel's military pressed on with its Gaza offensive a day after dozens of world leaders gathered at the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state.
The landmark diplomatic shift came after nearly two years of war that faces resistance from Israel and its close ally the United States.
Health authorities in Gaza also said that hospitals in the enclave will run out of fuel in the coming few days.
"We are not steadfast, we are helpless. We don’t have money to leave to the south and we don’t have guarantees if we do the Israelis will not bomb us, so we are staying," Huda, a mother of two from Gaza City said.
"The children tremble all the time from the sounds of explosions, we do too, they are wiping out a city that is thousands of years old and the world is celebrating a symbolic recognition of a state that won’t stop our killing."
Israeli forces detonated explosive-laden vehicles in the suburbs of Sabra and Tel Al-Hawa as tanks made a big push towards the western side of Gaza City.
Residents said the explosions destroyed dozens of homes and roads.
Three hospitals were taken out of operation on yesterday as Israeli forces advanced, further weakening the health system and depriving residents of medical care, local health authorities said.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 65,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to local health authorities, figures which the UN deems reliable.
Global hunger monitor IPC determined this month that an entirely man-made famine is currently taking place in Gaza, while UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the famine was the direct result of Israeli government policies.
The world's biggest academic association of genocide scholars passed a resolution earlier this month saying the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
President Emmanuel Macron announced that France recognised Palestinian statehood at a meeting he convened with Saudi Arabia yesterday - a milestone that appeared unlikely to change much on the ground.
Israel has said such moves will undermine prospects for a peaceful end to the conflict.
The two-state solution was the bedrock of the US-backed peace process ushered in by the 1993 Oslo Accords, but the process has all but died.
The Israeli government has declared there will be no Palestinian state as it fights the militant group Hamas in Gaza following the 7 October, 2023, attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures.
Despite this, Israel has begun a ground assault on Gaza City with few prospects for a ceasefire, and wants Hamas to hand over the last hostages it seized in the 2023 attack on Israel.
"Are we now being killed as the citizens of the state of Palestine? Is that what happened?" said Abu Mustafa, hours after he fled his Gaza City home because Israeli tanks were close.
"Those countries who suddenly remembered Palestine was occupied forgot that Gaza is being wiped out. We want the war to end, we want our slaughter to end, that's what we need now, not declarations."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the criticism of the military campaign and said the war will not stop until Hamas is eliminated.
But he has not produced a plan for Gaza, much of which Israel has reduced to rubble, after the war ends.
UN General Assembly
It comes as US President Donald Trump will meet leaders and officials from multiple Muslim-majority countries and discuss the situation in Gaza, which faces a humanitarian crisis including widespread hunger.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Trump would hold a multilateral meeting with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Axios said Mr Trump would present the group with a proposal for peace and post-war governance in Gaza.
Washington wants Arab and Muslim countries to agree to send military forces to Gaza to enable Israel's withdrawal and to secure funding for transition and rebuilding programmes, Axios reported.
In February, Mr Trump proposed a US takeover of Gaza and a permanent displacement of Palestinians from there.
It was labelled as an "ethnic cleansing" proposal by rights experts and the UN Forcible displacement is illegal under international law.
