- Death toll from yesterday’s airstrike on a residential district in Beit Lahiya rose to 40, WAFA said
GAZA: Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, especially in the north of the enclave, have killed at least 45 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health officials.
The health officials confirmed that at least 43 of those killed were in northern Gaza, where Israeli troops have returned to root out Hamas fighters who it claims have regrouped there.
Twenty people were killed following an airstrike on houses in Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, which has been the focus of an Israeli military offensive for more than three weeks, medics and the Palestinian official news agency Wafa said.
An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinian families in Shati camp in Gaza City, killed nine people and wounded 20 others, with many in critical condition, medics said.
RISING DEATH TOLL
Meanwhile, the death toll from an Israeli airstrike late on Saturday on a residential district in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya rose to 40, WAFA said.
The Israeli military said it had carried out “a precise strike using precise munitions” on Hamas fighters in a building in Beit Lahiya, hitting a number of them.
It said the high number of casualties mentioned in the WAFA report did not align with the type of munitions used in the precision attack.
Israeli military strikes on the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza have so far killed around 800 people during a three-week offensive, the Gaza health ministry said.
Palestinian health officials said the ongoing Israeli aerial and ground offensive has wrecked the healthcare system in northern Gaza and was blocking medical teams from reaching bombed sites.
The Civil Emergency Service said two days ago that their operations were halted after Israel detained and wounded several of their personnel and bombed their only fire truck.
Lebanon says 8 killed in Israeli strike near coastal city of Sidon
Lebanon’s health ministry has said that at least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded in an Israeli strike near the southern city of Sidon, where an AFP correspondent has said a building was targeted.
The strike hit a densely-populated area in a Sidon suburb that saw an influx of families displaced from areas further south.
It was the first strike there since the Israel-Hezbollah conflict erupted last month. “The Israeli enemy’s raid on Haret Saida resulted in a … toll of eight killed,” the health ministry said, revising an earlier toll of two dead.
The official National News Agency said a child was among the victims.
Three journalists among those killed in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp
Three journalists are among eight Palestinians killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports.
The deaths of Hamza Abu Selmeyeh, Saed Redwan and Haneen Baroud bring the total number of journalists killed in Gaza since October 7 last year to 180, according to Al Jazeera.