Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 33, including children, Palestinian medics say
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, with one attack ripping through a home where displaced people were sheltering in the isolated north. The strikes killed at least 33 people, including children, according to Palestinian health officials.
The Israel-Hamas war has raged on with no end in sight, even after Israel reached a cease-fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and attention shifted to the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Both the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations have said they hope to end the war in Gaza before the inauguration, but months of cease-fire talks have repeatedly stalled.
The strike on the home killed 19 people in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel, according to the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the bodies. Hospital records show that a family of eight was among those killed: four children, their parents and two grandparents.
The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas militant in the vicinity of the hospital. It said reports about the number of casualties in the strike were inaccurate, without elaborating. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses militants of hiding among them, putting their lives in danger.
The hospital said another strike near its entrance on Wednesday killed a woman and her two children.
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Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya, the hospital director, said Israeli drones struck nearby residential blocks overnight, causing explosions that sparked panic among the more than 120 patients in the facility.
“We have received distress calls from neighbors and trapped people, but we’re not able to leave the hospital because of the continued risk,” he said. “We are witnessing a massive loss of life, with many martyrs in the targeted areas.”
Another strike in the decades-old Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to the Awda Hospital. The dead included two children, their parents and three other relatives, it said. Later, the hospital said another attack hit the same camp, killing four people and injuring 16 more.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the Nuseirat camp strikes.
In Lebanon, where near-daily Israeli attacks have continued despite the cease-fire, at least five people died Wednesday in strikes in the south, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry and the state news agency.
Evacuation orders after rocket fire
Militants in central Gaza, meanwhile, fired four projectiles into Israel on Wednesday, two of which were intercepted, the military said. The other two fell in open areas, and there were no reports of casualties.
No banks. No bills. Israel’s blockade on cash imports into Gaza leaves Palestinians there with disintegrating paper money amid growing desperation.
The Israeli military ordered the evacuation of a five-block area of the built-up Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, saying the rockets had been fired from there. The orders indicated that Israel would soon carry out strikes in the area.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count but say women and children make up at least half the dead. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. Thousands more Palestinians have gone missing during the war and much of Gaza has been destroyed.
U.N. says civilians in Gaza face an ‘utterly devastating situation’
Israel has been waging a renewed offensive against Hamas in Gaza’s isolated and heavily destroyed north since early October. Troops have surrounded Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, allowing in almost no humanitarian aid and ordering tens of thousands to flee to nearby Gaza City.
Israeli officials have said the three communities are mostly deserted, but the United Nations humanitarian office said Tuesday that it believes 65,000 to 75,000 people are still there, with little access to food, water, electricity or healthcare. Experts have warned that the north may be experiencing famine.
Nearly everyone in Gaza is going hungry these days. In the north, experts say a full-blown famine may be underway amid aid issues for Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war.
Sigrid Kaag, the senior United Nations humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, told reporters at the U.N. on Tuesday that civilians trying to survive all across Gaza face an “utterly devastating situation.”
She pointed to the breakdown in law and order and the looting that has left the U.N. and many aid organizations unable to deliver food and other humanitarian essentials to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in need.
Kaag said she and other U.N. officials repeatedly ask Israel to allow access for convoys, to allow in commercial goods and to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt in the south.
The Israeli military said it targeted Syrian antiaircraft batteries, missile depots, manufacturing facilities, drones, helicopters, fighter jets, tanks, hangars, radars and 15 naval vessels.
The Israeli military says it allows in enough humanitarian aid and blames U.N. agencies for not distributing it, saying large amounts of aid have accumulated just inside Gaza’s borders. U.N. officials say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and ongoing fighting make it difficult to access the aid and distribute it, and have repeatedly called for a cease-fire.
The United States, Egypt and Qatar have been mediating talks between Israel and Hamas for nearly a year, and diplomats say those efforts have recently gained momentum.
But Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned and has said Israel will maintain a lasting military presence in some areas.
Associated Press writers Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah and Magdy from Cairo. AP writers Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, and Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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