An Israeli strike in the central section of the Gaza Strip resulted in numerous fatalities on Thursday, according to Palestinian reports, with other deaths reported elsewhere including eight suspected Hamas members.
At least 25 Palestinians have lost their lives in the refugee district of Nuseirat, medical sources in the Gaza Strip said, though media reports later said the death toll was 33. According to these sources, Israel’s military targeted residential buildings there. The information could not be independently verified.
The Palestinian news agency WAFA simultaneously reported dozens of injuries in Nuseirat. According to the report, the Israeli Air Force struck a building and neighbouring houses multiple times. Footage on social media allegedly shows medics later carrying some motionless and bleeding individuals into a hospital.
The details could not be independently verified at first. Israel’s army stated it was looking into the report upon inquiry.
WAFA reported a total of 70 fatalities throughout the day due to Israeli strikes at various locations in the Gaza Strip.
Report: 38 dead in earlier Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip
WAFA reported earlier Thursday that 38 people had died in various other Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The casualties included 13 Palestinians accompanying an aid delivery in the southern part of the coastal strip, according to WAFA.
Others were reportedly killed in attacks on central and northern Gaza, including women and children.
The Israeli military said it had “conducted precise strikes on armed Hamas terrorists gathered at two different meeting points in southern Gaza,” after receiving intelligence information on their presence.
“The terrorists operated on the humanitarian corridor in the southern Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military added. The aim of the attack was to “ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians.”
The Hamas militants had planned to “violently hijack humanitarian aid trucks,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) wrote.
Hamas triggered the Gaza war with its bloody assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in more than 1,200 deaths.
Since then, more than 44,800 people have been killed in the coastal strip, according to Palestinian reports.
Israel says eight Hamas members killed in strike on Gaza City
A head of Hamas’ weapons production department and a company commander of the militia were killed in a targeted airstrike on a former school building in Gaza City, which now serves as a Hamas command centre, the IDF posted on X.
Six other Hamas members were also killed in the strike, including a man who had taken part in the massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, the IDF said.
According to Palestinian reports, Israeli attacks often cause many civilian casualties. The Israeli military has repeatedly emphasized that it takes measures to reduce the risk to civilians.
Palestinian sources said that refugees had found shelter in the former school building, which has been the target of Israeli attacks in the past.
The Israeli military has previously spoken of a Hamas command centre embedded in the building.
The information on both sides could not initially be independently verified.
Palestinians cry next to the bodies of their relatives who were killed after the Israeli army targeted aid personnel west of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip. Saher Alghorra/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
