Israeli strikes kill 32 in Gaza, siege around hospitals tightens


Families mourn their loved ones who were killed by Israeli strikes on al-Maghazi refugee camp on Saturday [Getty/file photo]

Israeli military strikes killed at least 32 people across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian health officials said, as forces tightened a siege around hospitals in Jabalia in the north of the enclave.

In the central Gaza Strip camp of Al-Maghazi, an Israeli strike on a house killed 11 people, while another strike at the nearby camp of Nuseirat killed four others.

Five other people were killed in two separate strikes in the south Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, medics said, while seven Palestinians were killed in the al-Shati camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

Late on Friday, medics said 33 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 85 others were wounded in Israeli strikes that destroyed at least three houses in Jabalia.

The Israeli military claimed it were carrying out operations against Hamas across the war-hit enclave, particularly in Jabalia. Palestinian medics said five people were killed in there on Saturday.

Residents and medics said Israeli forces had tightened their siege on Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic camps, which it encircled by also sending tanks to nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia and issuing evacuation orders to residents.

Residents and medical officials said Israeli forces were bombing houses and besieging hospitals, preventing medical and food supplies from entering to force them to leave the camp.

Health officials said they refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate the hospital or leave the patients, many in critical condition, unattended.

“The Israeli occupation is intensifying its targeting of the health system in the northern Gaza Strip, by besieging and directly targeting the Indonesian Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital, and Al-Awda Hospital during the past hours and its insistence on putting them out of service,” the Gaza health ministry said.

It said two patients in intensive care at the Indonesian Hospital died “as a result of the hospital’s siege and the power outage and medical supplies”.

Medics said a nurse at the Kamal Adwan Hospital was killed along with some members of his family in an Israeli air strike on their house overnight in Jabalia camp.

Hamas senior official Sami Abu Zuhri said no aid has entered northern Gaza in over 15 days, while other NGOs say that no food as made to the area since the start of the month – further exacerbating the dire situation.

More than 42,500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of the war on October 7 last year, while thousands more are feared buried under rubble.



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