GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Wednesday that Israeli strikes killed at least 27 people, as the military issued new evacuation calls in northern areas of the Palestinian territory.
The latest Israeli strikes come as truce mediator Qatar said negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza were in their “final stages”.
The civil defence agency said in a statement that 11 bodies were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, after Israel struck a family home in Deir el-Balah city during the night.
A seven-year-old boy and three teenagers were among the dead, the agency said.
A separate strike targeted a school building used as shelter for war-displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, killing seven people and injuring several others, the civil defence agency said.
A third strike at dawn hit a house in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six people and injuring seven, the agency added.
Another three people were killed when the Israeli military targeted the Al-Shati camp in Gaza City, the agency said.
The Israeli military confirmed that its forces had carried out multiple strikes overnight in Gaza, saying in a statement that they were “precise” and targeted “terrorist operatives”.
In the past 24 hours, the military said it had struck more than 50 targets across the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military on Wednesday issued a new evacuation call in Arabic for the northern Gaza city of Jabalia, warning residents to move south to Gaza City before it attacks the area.
Jabalia and its surrounding areas have been the focus of an intense Israeli military operation since October 2023, causing thousands of displaced and shortages of everything for those remaining.
The army says it is fighting Hamas militants who have regrouped in the area.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched the deadliest attack in Israeli history, resulting in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory which the UN considers reliable.
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