Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continue amid mounting international pressure for ceasefire, 44 killed

Israeli airstrikes and gunfire killed at least 44 people in Gaza on Saturday, health authorities said, as international pressure for a ceasefire rises but Israel remains adamant on continuing its war against Hamas.

According to officials at Al-Awda Hospital, nine members of the same family died in a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Nasser Hospital reported that five more people were killed after a strike hit a displaced persons’ tent.

Israel's army said it was unaware of any deaths caused by firing in southern Gaza on Saturday and had no immediate reaction to the raids.

The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical staff there were concerned about Israeli tanks "approaching the vicinity of the hospital," limiting access to the institution, which is treating 159 patients.

“The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.

He also stated that 14 premature babies were being treated in incubators at Helou Hospital, although the facility's main gate had been closed due to drones hovering overhead, according to Dr Nasser Bulbul, the head of neonatal intensive care.

These strikes, carried out on Saturday morning, destroyed a house in Gaza City's Tufah neighbourhood, killing at least 11 people — more than half of whom were women and children — according to Al-Ahly Hospital, where the bodies were sent. Four more individuals were killed after an airstrike targeted their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa Hospital.

The attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged fellow global leaders at the UN General Assembly yesterday, Friday, September 26, to let his country "finish the job" against Hamas in Gaza.

Netanyahu's remarks, directed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as at the global one, began as dozens of delegates from various countries walked out of the UN General Assembly session en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.

International pressure on Israel to halt the war is increasing, as is Israel's isolation, with a growing number of countries recently voting to recognise Palestinian statehood, which Israel opposes.