Dozens of people, including children, have been killed in the Israeli attack, Palestinian health authorities have reported, as the Gaza Strip faces food shortages and fears of starvation.
The attacks began hours after the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
An Israeli airstrike late Thursday killed at least 30 Palestinians and wounded 50 others who had taken shelter in a post office in the Nuseyrat refugee camp built in central Gaza, medical officials told Reuters. .
The attack came after dozens more people were killed in Israeli attacks on aid convoys elsewhere in Nuseyrat and in southern Gaza.
The Ministry of Health said orthopedic surgeon Saeed Judeh was killed by an armed quadcopter drone on his way from Kamal Adwan Hospital to the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, which the military has cordoned off from the rest of Gaza since October. announced that he had died. Treat patients at Al Awda Hospital.
The Ministry of Health announced that his death brings the number of medical workers who have died since the war began to 1,057.
Palestinian medical authorities had reported at least 28 deaths earlier in the day, including seven children and one woman. Al-Aqsa Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken, said one of the airstrikes destroyed a house in Nuseyrat.
Two separate Israeli airstrikes in Rafah and Khan Yunis have killed at least 13 Palestinians, including Gaza medical workers and Hamas who were part of a force protecting humanitarian aid trucks. The Israeli military said they were Hamas militants trying to hijack the shipment and that the attack was aimed at ensuring the safe delivery of aid.
A video shared by local media in Gaza showed the aftermath of an attack that allegedly targeted aid workers' guards near Khan Younis.
According to local media, their work was vital in facilitating the delivery of essential goods to displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where food shortages and the threat of imminent starvation persist.
Hamas said at least 700 police officers tasked with securing aid trucks in the Gaza Strip have been killed in Israeli military attacks since the war began on October 7, 2023. Hamas accused Israel of trying to protect the looters and “creating anarchy and chaos to prevent aid from reaching the people.” Gaza.”
On Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and expressing support for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which Israel has banned.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N. Palestine Refugee Agency, said the challenges facing humanitarian operations had been deemed “unnecessarily impossible.” This is due to a combination of factors including “the ongoing siege, obstruction from Israeli authorities, political decisions to limit aid amounts, lack of security along aid routes, and targeting of local police” to secure aid convoys. It was for a reason.
Lazzarini called on Israel to ensure the uninterrupted flow of aid to Gaza, stressing that it “must refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers.”
On Thursday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he believed in the agreement on the Gaza Strip. A cease-fire and hostage release may be in the offing, as Israel has indicated it is ready and there have been signs of movement from Hamas.
“It may not happen, but I believe it can happen if there is political will on both sides,” Sullivan said after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. There are still about 100 hostages in Gaza, and at least one-third are thought to have died.
Israeli attacks have killed more than 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, but it did not say how many of them were fighters. . Thousands more people are believed to be buried under rubble and tens of thousands more injured.
The Israeli military said, without providing evidence, that it had killed more than 17,000 militants.
