Reuters
Rescue workers say at least two homes were hit in the Khan Yunis strike
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said at least 38 people were killed in Israeli military attacks in southern Gaza.
Rescue workers said nine children from one family were among the victims killed on the outskirts of the southern city of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli military said its forces killed numerous Hamas fighters and dismantled infrastructure during operations in the Khan Yunis area, casting doubt on the reported casualty numbers.
This came as Israeli forces reportedly stormed one of the last functioning hospitals in the northern territory.
The WHO said it had lost contact with doctors at Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern town of Beit Lakhia, near the Jabalia besieged area, and the Health Ministry said Israeli forces had detained staff, patients and displaced persons.
The Israeli military said its forces were operating in the Kamal Adwan “area” based on information “regarding the presence of terrorists.”
A new Israeli ground offensive in Jabalia has reportedly killed hundreds of Palestinians and displaced tens of thousands in recent weeks, prompting the military to regroup Hamas fighters. The aim is to prevent it.
A spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said at least two homes in the southeastern al-Manara neighborhood of Khan Yunis were attacked by Israeli forces around early Friday.
Mahmoud Bassal said 14 people, including nine children, were killed in the attack on the Alfalah family’s home. Six members of the Abdeen family were also reportedly killed in separate attacks.
Photos from the scene showed relatives and neighbors searching the ruins of several destroyed buildings next to a large crater.
Saleh Adel al-Fala told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today program that there were clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters on Thursday night and that his family went to sleep “when the situation calmed down a bit”. .
“Suddenly I woke up at 2:30 a.m. feeling like I was having trouble breathing and started screaming for help. Then I found my brother looking for me under the rubble and my house was destroyed. “I told them it had been bombed,” he said.
“I don’t remember what happened next. Both my brother and sister were martyred, and my two pregnant sisters were injured.”
Furthermore, he added: “Despite their claims, there is not a single resistance fighter among us. All the wounded and dead are civilians.”
Another family member, Umm al-Ameer al-Fala, told AFP news agency: “The rocket fell next to us and we were trapped under the rubble. My children and sister died.” spoke.
The Civil Defense Department posted a video showing rescue workers recovering the bodies of nine children from a house in Al Faras. The same children were later photographed in body bags at the nearby Europa Gaza Hospital.
The bodies of three more children were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Reuters reported.
Reuters
Witnesses and health officials said the attack included both airstrikes and artillery fire.
A resident, who requested anonymity, told BBC Arabic that Israeli warplanes and tanks attacked the area without warning.
“The army entered our area, passed right in front of our house with advanced machinery and started shooting. They bombed the Abdeen family’s house and the houses of the neighbors,” the man said. said.
“Previously, we received SMS warnings to evacuate the area before military operations. This time, the targets were unarmed civilians who had no ties to any (armed) organization.”
Health officials also told The Associated Press that the attack included both airstrikes and artillery fire.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its forces “acted on intelligence information, dismantled terrorist infrastructure and eliminated a large number of terrorists” in the Khan Yunis area.
It added: “Reports regarding the number of casualties in the area are inconsistent with current information held by the Israel Defense Forces.”
Israel launched an operation to annihilate Hamas in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which left approximately 1,200 people dead and 251 hostages taken.
More than 42,840 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry.
