Forty-seven Palestinians were killed and dozens injured, most of them children and women, in overnight Israeli bombardment of 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 latest violence is part of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza. 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. Israel says the death toll includes thousands of Hamas fighters. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries.
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 Hamas of using the hospital for military purposes, but health officials and Hamas deny the assertion.
The health ministry in Gaza called for international bodies “to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation.” Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said one of its doctors at the hospital had been detained by Israeli forces, and called for the protection of all medical staff facing “horrific violence.”
