Forty-seven Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, most of them children and women, in overnight Israeli bombardment of the the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Friday.
The attacks occurred in the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda, it said.
The Israeli military said its troops had identified and eliminated “several armed terrorists” in central Gaza and had eliminated “dozens of terrorists” in targeted raids in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area.
The Gaza war began after a Hamas attack on Israel a year ago killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,400 Palestinians, with more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters.
Hamas has been designated terrorist organizations by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others.
At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, mostly in the north where one attack hit a hospital, torching medical supplies and disrupting operations, the enclave’s health officials said.
Israel’s military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya for military purposes and said “dozens of terrorists” have been hiding there. Health officials and Hamas deny the assertion.
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip called for all international bodies “to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation.”
Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said Thursday that one of its doctors at the hospital, Mohammed Obeid, had been detained Saturday by Israeli forces. It called for the protection of him and all medical staff who “are facing horrific violence as they try to provide care.”
