Beirut, Jan 4: At least 24 Palestinians were killed as Israeli warplanes carried out fresh airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, with the Israeli military warning it would bomb a hospital in northern Gaza, local sources said.Airstrikes targeted a group of Palestinians in the Al-Sayed Ali area of the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City on Friday, killing seven people, including four children and a woman, Gaza’s Civil Defence said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, five people were killed and others injured in an airstrike near the entrance of Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital confirmed it received the bodies of five people killed in an airstrike on Al-Nasr Street, also west of Gaza City. Paramedics said medical teams later recovered five more bodies, including three children, following airstrikes in the Al-Zeitoun and Al-Sabra neighborhoods.
In central Gaza, two people died when an Israeli strike hit a civilian car in Al-Zawaida town. Their remains were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, hospital officials reported.
Meanwhile, Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza said it received an ultimatum from the Israeli military to evacuate immediately or face bombing. The hospital also reported intense artillery shelling around its premises.
The Israeli military has not issued an immediate response to these incidents. However, it stated on Friday that its air force had struck 40 Hamas targets, including command centers and control facilities. The army accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure, such as schools, for operational purposes, calling it a “cynical exploitation” of Gaza’s civilian population.
The strikes are part of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza following a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which left around 1,200 people dead and 250 others taken hostage.
Meanwhile, at least 33 Palestinians were killed in intense Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight, Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson in Gaza Mahmoud Basal said Friday.
In central Gaza, nine Palestinians were killed and 10 others injured in Israeli bombing of a house in the Maghazi refugee camp, whereas 11 people were killed and 20 others injured due to Israeli bombings of two houses and an apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Basal told Xinhua.
Eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on three houses in the towns of Deir al-Balah and al-Zawayda in central Gaza, including a journalist, Basal said.
The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said in a statement that journalist Omar al-Diraoui and his parents were among those killed in an Israeli airstrike on al-Zawayda, bringing the total number of journalists killed since the onset of the Gaza conflict to 202.
In southern Gaza, two people were killed and two others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian gathering in Khirbet al-Adas, north of the city of Rafah, Basal said.
Three others were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian gathering in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of Gaza City, he added.
Earlier on Friday, the Israeli military said it has conducted raids on some 40 sites used by Hamas across Gaza since Thursday.
The airstrikes targeted Hamas’ command and control centres, as well as gathering points used by Hamas militants who had planned and executed attacks on Israeli troops and civilians, killing “dozens” of militants operated from these locations, the Israel Defence Forces and Shin Bet security agency said in a joint statement.
Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Friday that the Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 45,658, with injuries reaching 108,583, as 77 people were killed and 145 others wounded by the Israeli military during the past 24 hours.