At least 40 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, medics say
CAIRO — At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza on Sunday, including two dozen when a residential building in the northern town of Jabalia was hit, Palestinian health officials and a human rights group said.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) in Gaza said at least 24 people were killed when an Israeli strike destroyed the three-story building in Jabalia at dawn. Thirty other people from nearby houses were wounded, PCHR said in a statement.
Footage circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed about a dozen bodies wrapped in blankets and laid on the ground outside a hospital near Jabalia. Local media said they were the bodies of people killed in the attack on the residential building, which housed at least 30 people, according to residents.
The Israeli military said it struck a site in Jabalia in which “terrorists were operating.”
“These terrorists posed a threat to IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) troops operating in the area. The details are under review,” the Israel military said.
In Gaza City, an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Sabra neighbourhood on Sunday killed Wael Al-Khour, an official at the welfare ministry, as well as his wife, Khour, one son, two daughters and three grandchildren, medical officials and relatives said.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its teams, in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross, evacuated 20 patients from Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia on Sunday to another facility in Gaza City.
It said one of the patients died as the ambulances were held up for hours at an Israeli checkpoint separating northern Gaza areas from Gaza City.
The three hospitals in and around Jabalia have been besieged by Israeli forces for several weeks and hospital officials have refused army orders to evacuate the facilities or leave their patients unattended despite the depletion of food, medical and fuel supplies.
The Israeli military accuses Palestinian militant group Hamas of exploiting the civilian population and property in Gaza for military purposes, a charge the militant group denies.
