Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza today in Israeli airstrikes, Palestinian media reported, after the US urged Israel to scale back its military campaign and focus on precision-targeted operations against Hamas leaders.

At least 14 people were killed in raids that hit two houses on the Old Gaza Strip in Jambaliya and dozens were killed in a strike on another house in Jambaliya, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

According to the agency, a large number of citizens are trapped in the debris.

The Israeli military announced that its warplanes targeted a building in Jambaliya after its forces came under fire and a number of Hamas fighters were identified on its roof. It is currently unclear if this building was one of the ones WAFA reported to have been hit.

The Israeli military noted that his forces killed militants holed up in two schools in Gaza City and raided apartments in Khan Younis where weapons were stored and that they found what the military said was an underground infrastructure used by Hamas.

Reuters was unable to independently verify this information.

Amid intense ground fighting in the tiny enclave of the Gaza Strip and aid groups warning of a humanitarian catastrophe, the US has warned Israel that it risks losing international support over its “indiscriminate” aerial bombardment of Palestinian civilians.

US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who visited Israel yesterday, Thursday, and yesterday, Friday, conveyed message to Israel to reduce the intensity of the broad military campaign and move into precision-targeted operations against Hamas leaders, according to US officials.

During Sullivan’s visit, Israeli officials publicly said they would continue the war until they achieve their goal of eliminating Hamas, which could take months.

Washington yesterday hinted at disagreement with Israel over how quickly to de-escalate the war, with Sullivan saying the timetable was the subject of “intense discussions” between the allies.

In a surprise, bloody, cross-border attack on October 7, Hamas militants stormed Israeli cities, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages in Gaza. Israel’s counter-offensive has killed nearly 19,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and thousands are feared buried in the rubble.

The Israeli military announced yesterday that it had killed three hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, who it mistakenly mistook for a threat. The military offered its condolences to the families of the hostages killed during the battle, saying there would be “full transparency” in an investigation into the incident.

The army also announced that it had recovered the bodies of three other hostages killed by Hamas. Israel also said it believed about 20 of the more than 130 hostages still being held in the populous Palestinian enclave were dead.

Fighting has intensified in the past two weeks since a week-long humanitarian ceasefire collapsed.

Israeli government spokesman Eilon Levy said Israel is winning the war and humiliating Hamas, citing a reduction in the number of rockets fired at Israeli soil.

However, hours later and for the first time in weeks, sirens sounded in Jerusalem and explosions were heard from at least three intercepts by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. Hamas’ armed wing claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, which it described as a response to “Zionist massacres of civilians”.

The vast majority of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes in the past two months, many several times.

After Sullivan’s departure, Israel announced it would open the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the main road crossing into Gaza, to transport aid for the first time since the war broke out, allowing 200 trucks a day to pass through. that is, twice the number that can pass through the Rafa border crossing.

Aid groups, warning of the risk of mass starvation and disease, have long called for Israel to speed up the delivery of aid by allowing it to enter directly from Kerem Shalom at the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza.

Gaza residents reported another night of heavy fighting and shelling across the Palestinian enclave yesterday, including Seyjaya, Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, Tufah and Beit Hanoun in the north, and in the center and northern outskirts of the main city in its south. Khan Younis.

“The Gaza Strip turned into a ball of fire overnight, we heard explosions and gunfire from all sides,” Ahmed, 45, an electrician and father of six, told Reuters from a shelter in central Gaza.

“They can destroy houses and roads and kill civilians from the air or with bombardments from armored tanks, but when they come face to face with the resistance, they lose,” he said.