Gaza Civil Defense said on Sunday that Israeli strikes overnight in the Gaza Strip left at least 18 people dead, including four displaced people who took refuge in a tent.
Posted at 8:02 a.m.
Updated at 12:04 p.m.
Rescuers worked throughout the night and found 18 bodies, while dozens of people were injured, said Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal.
The dead included four people killed in a bombing of a house in central Gaza City. Four others were killed and eight injured in a strike on a tent housing dozens of displaced people in Deir el-Balah, a town in the center of the Palestinian territory, according to the same source.
The Qatari channel Al Jazeera announced on Sunday that one of its journalists had also been killed in an Israeli strike on the Nusseirat refugee camp, in the center of the besieged territory.
PHOTO OMAR AL-QATTAA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Paramedics place an injured Palestinian woman in an ambulance before transporting her to Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, December 15, 2024.
Mr. Bassal said at least three children were among the dead. The mayor of Deir el-Balah, Diab al-Jaro, was killed in one of these strikes, according to this source.
AFP photos showed residents collecting the bodies of relatives at a hospital in Gaza City, while other bodies were hidden under blankets.
Contacted by AFP about the various strikes, the Israeli army confirmed in a statement on Sunday that it had carried out strikes on the areas of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia.
“In Beit Lahia, Israeli troops eliminated terrorists and located and dismantled large quantities of weaponry, including explosives and dozens of grenades,” the statement said.
In another statement, the army reported targeting a clinic in northern Gaza, saying it was used by Hamas fighters as a “command and control center” as well as a weapons storage site.
According to the army, the mayor of Deir el-Balah was an “active member of the military wing of Hamas”.
The war in the Gaza Strip, triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel, led to displacement within the Palestinian territory for the vast majority of the 2.4 million inhabitants, often repeatedly.
The Israeli army has been carrying out military operations in the north of the Gaza Strip for several weeks, the objective of which it believes is to prevent the regrouping of Hamas fighters. The army claims to have eliminated dozens of “terrorists” there.
The fighting also caused casualties among healthcare workers, further worsening the situation of the health system in the Gaza Strip plunged into a serious humanitarian crisis after more than 14 months of war.
“We are suffering from a shortage of medical personnel due to the targeting and martyrdom of a large number of doctors and nurses,” Houssam Abou Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north, told reporters. from the Gaza Strip.
He said airstrikes and artillery shelling continued to target the hospital and its surroundings, exacerbating the crisis and endangering both patients and medical staff.
Israel orders the closure of its embassy in Dublin
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement on Sunday that it had ordered the closure of its embassy in Dublin after “anti-Israeli” initiatives, believing that Ireland had “crossed all red lines”.
“Ireland’s anti-Semitic actions and rhetoric against Israel are rooted in the delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state, as well as double standards. Ireland has crossed all the red lines in its relations with Israel,” said the head of Israeli diplomacy, Gideon Saar, according to this press release.
Diplomatic relations between Ireland and Israel have deteriorated following a series of initiatives, including Dublin’s recognition of a State of Palestine and support for proceedings brought by South Africa before the Court International Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip where the country has been at war against Hamas since October 7, 2023, the day of the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil.
