Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 92 as campaign prepares to expand
Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 92 people on May 7, 2025, including women, children and two journalists, according to officials in the territory. The attacks came as Israel prepared to intensify its campaign in the strip, raising the death toll and deepening fears that the war was entering a more destructive phase.
AP reported that two Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza killed at least 33 people and wounded 86, including several children, though officials said the real toll was likely higher. Separate strikes included attacks on a crowded market area in Gaza City and on a school-turned shelter. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strikes, leaving the local health authorities’ account as the main on-the-ground record in the moment.
The dead included journalist Yahya Sobeih, who freelanced for several local outlets, and another journalist, Nour Abdu, who was killed while covering an attack at a school shelter in Gaza City. The Gaza media office said Sobeih had recently posted a photo of his newborn daughter, a detail that underscores the personal dimension of the loss without changing the basic fact that he was among those killed. The deaths of journalists make the strikes especially significant for anyone tracking the war because they reduce the number of people documenting the conflict and because press deaths are often closely scrutinized.
The report places the day’s violence inside a larger military plan. Israel had recently approved an expansion that would involve seizing Gaza, holding captured territory, forcibly moving Palestinians south and controlling aid distribution with private security companies. Israel was also calling up tens of thousands of reservists. That context matters because the strikes were not isolated; they were part of a broader escalation policy.
The AP story also says the Israeli offensive had already killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza since the war began, according to Palestinian health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says Hamas uses civilian sites. Those competing claims are part of the same long-running war narrative, but the verified facts in this package are the number of dead in this round, the journalist casualties and the planned escalation.
The May 7 strikes left hospitals, shelters and market areas handling the dead and wounded, while the wider war continued to shape politics, hostages and military planning. For Gaza’s civilians, the immediate reality was more direct: another day of bombardment, another set of funerals and another sign that the conflict was moving toward a harsher phase.
