Palestinian officials say at least 16 people killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza
Palestinian medical officials said at least 16 people were killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip overnight and on Sunday.
At least six people, including four children, were killed in an attack on a school housing displaced people in Gaza City, according to Civil Defense, a Hamas-run government-affiliated first responder. The Israeli military said it carried out a precision strike on Hamas militants holed up there.
At least eight people were killed in an attack on a house in the central city of Deir al-Balah late Saturday, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. Two more people were killed in the strike just after midnight Sunday in the southern city of Khan Yunis, according to nearby Nasser Hospital.
There was no immediate comment from the army on those attacks.
More than 14 months after the war with Hamas, Israel continues to launch daily attacks in Gaza. It says it only targets terrorists, whom it accuses of hiding among civilians, but the bombings often kill women and children.
The war began in October. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants swept into southern Israel in a surprise attack, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, of whom at least a third are believed dead.
Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, Britain, and other Western countries.
Israel’s subsequent bombing and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, more than half of whom are women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.
The attack has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people at times. As the cold, wet winter sets in, hundreds of thousands of people pack into dirty tent camps along the coast.
Israel has been waging a major campaign in northern Gaza since early October, fighting Hamas in the most isolated and heavily damaged part of the territory. Thousands of people have fled as the military has ordered a complete evacuation and has allowed almost no humanitarian aid to enter.
The Israeli military body that oversees civilian affairs in Gaza, known as COGAT, said it had helped evacuate more than 100 patients, caregivers and others from Kamal Adwan Hospital and Awda Hospital in the far north. Who are struggling to work. COGAT said it has also facilitated the delivery of 5,000 liters of fuel and food packages to hospitals.
Israeli authorities also allowed Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, to enter Gaza and celebrate pre-Christmas Mass with members of the area’s small Christian community. The Latin Patriarchate confirmed the visit in a brief statement.