Israel airstrike in central Gaza kills at least 10 people, according to hospital officials
At least 21 journalists have been killed in the conflict as of Thursday, with another eight reported injured and three reported missing or detained.
Israel’s consent for Egypt to let in food, water and medicine provided the first possible opening in its seal of the territory.
“We can’t save more lives if this keeps happening, meaning more children … more women will die,” Qandeel said.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority women, children and older adults.
GAZA ( Web News )
At least 10 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday night, according to health officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
The airstrike in Deir al-Balah also wounded at least 35 people, the health officials said. Children were among those killed and wounded, according to the officials.
The structure targeted was a three-floor residential building, health officials and witnesses said.
CNN obtained videos filmed by a local journalist who was inside the hospital following the strike, showing a chaotic scene as health workers rushed to treat the wounded people who were brought in, including children and women.
The Hamas-controlled interior ministry said several displaced people who had taken shelter at a church compound in the Gaza Strip have been killed and injured after an Israeli strike late Thursday.
The strike left a “large number of martyrs and injured” at the compound of the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, the ministry said.
Witnesses told AFP the strike appeared to have been aimed at a target close to the place of worship where many Gaza residents had taken refuge as the war raged in the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli army when contacted told AFP it was checking the reported strike.
Witnesses said the strike damaged the facade of the church and caused an adjacent building to collapse, adding that many injured people were evacuated to hospital.
Saint Porphyrius is the oldest church still in use in Gaza and is located in the city’s historic neighborhood.
CNN has reached out to the media office of the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
The IDF has been striking Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7. The IDF told CNN last week the number of people killed in the Hamas attacks is now known to be more than 1,400.
The widespread airstrikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 3,478 people, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.
The number of journalists killed while covering the Israel-Hamas war continues to rise.
At least 21 journalists have been killed in the conflict as of Thursday, with another eight reported injured and three reported missing or detained, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit that champions the rights of journalists worldwide.
Seventeen of those killed were Palestinian, while three were Israeli and one was Lebanese, the CPJ said. The organization continues to track the growing number of press deaths related to the unfolding conflict.
“CPJ is also investigating unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes,” the press freedom group said.
The CPJ said it compiled its information from its own sources in the region and from media reports.
“Journalists across the region are making great sacrifices to cover this heartbreaking conflict,” said Sherif Mansour, the CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “All parties must take steps to ensure their safety.”
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes Thursday, including in the south where Palestinians were told to take refuge, and the country’s defense minister told ground troops to “be ready” to invade, though he didn’t say when.
Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals tried to stretch out ebbing medical supplies and fuel for generators, as authorities worked out logistics for a delivery of aid from Egypt. Doctors in darkened wards across Gaza stitched wounds by the light of mobile phones, and others used vinegar to treat infected wounds.
Meanwhile an unclassified U.S. intelligence assessment delivered to Congress estimated casualties in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital on the “low end” of 100 to 300 deaths. The death toll “still reflects a staggering loss of life,” U.S. intelligence officials said in the findings, which were seen by The Associated Press.
Israel’s consent for Egypt to let in food, water and medicine provided the first possible opening in its seal of the territory. Many of Gaza’s residents are down to one meal a day and drinking dirty water.
Egypt and Israel were still negotiating for the entry of fuel for hospitals. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hamas has stolen fuel from U.N. facilities and Israel wanted assurances this won’t happen. The first trucks of aid were expected to go in Friday, Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera news reported.
With the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in Rafah still closed, the already dire conditions at Gaza’s second-largest hospital deteriorated further, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel of Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis. Power was shut off in most parts of the hospital to save it for intensive care and other vital functions, and staff members were using mobile phones for light.
“We can’t save more lives if this keeps happening, meaning more children … more women will die,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry pleaded with gas stations to give fuel to hospitals, and a U.N. agency gave some of its last fuel supplies to hospitals.
The agency’s donation to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, would “keep us going for another few hours,” hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said.
Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital was still recovering from Tuesday’s explosion, which remains a point of dispute between Hamas and Israel. Hamas quickly said an Israeli airstrike had hit the hospital. Israel denied it was involved. The AP has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
The blast Tuesday left body parts strewn on the hospital grounds, where crowds of Palestinians had clustered in hopes of escaping Israeli airstrikes. The U.S. assessment noted “only light structural damage” to the hospital itself was evident, with no impact crater visible.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority women, children and older adults. Nearly 12,500 were injured, and another 1,300 people were believed buried under the rubble, health authorities said.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ deadly incursion on Oct. 7. Roughly 200 others were abducted. The Israeli military said Thursday it had notified the families of 203 captives.
For the first time since 1967 when Israel captured Gaza from Egypt, a major tent camp arose to house displaced people. Dozens of U.N.-provided tents and tarps lined a dirt lot in the southern city of Khan Younis. Families boiled water on gas stoves and charged phones on small generators. Volunteers passed around cans of tuna and bread.
The deal to get aid into Gaza through Rafah, the territory’s only connection to Egypt, remained fragile. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians in southern Gaza and that it would “thwart” any diversions by Hamas. U.S. President Joe Biden said the deliveries “will end” if Hamas takes any aid.
More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid were positioned at or near Rafah, according to Khalid Zayed, the head of the Red Crescent for North Sinai.