Israel kills dozens as it intensifies attacks on Gaza by air, land and sea
Health Ministry reports ‘large numbers’ of killed and wounded rushed to hospital as a result of nonstop Israeli bombardment.
The Israeli military is conducting intense assaults across the Gaza Strip by air, land and sea, killing dozens of people and spreading fear among its war-weary displaced population.
Dozens of air raids hit the besieged territory on Saturday, particularly in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, homes west of the city of Rafah in the south and multiple areas in Gaza City to the north.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said “large numbers” of killed and wounded were arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the majority of whom are children and women.
“Dozens of injured people are lying on the ground, and medical teams are trying to save them with the basic medical capabilities they have available,” it said, adding that it is short on medicine and food, and that its main generator has stopped functioning due to a lack of fuel.
In a news briefing, a spokesman for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said at least 55 killed people and dozens wounded were brought to the barely functioning medical facility following the Israeli attacks on Deir el-Balah.
The spokesman added that there were still “a lot of” bodies and wounded people that remained on the streets.
Communications were affected amid the intense bombardment, but reporting from inside the “overwhelmed” hospital via a telephone call, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said the situation is tense, with terrified people on the street not knowing where to turn.
“There are explosions happening every minute. Ambulances are transferring the wounded to the hospital where we are trapped. It’s chaos inside the hospital. There are children among the wounded,” she said.
In a short statement, the Israeli military said its forces were “targeting terrorist infrastructure in the area of Nuseirat”. It later announced its forces rescued four captives during the operation in Nuseirat. The four, who were taken into Gaza after the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, were in “good medical condition”, the military said.
The Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement that the Israeli army had launched “an unprecedented brutal attack” on the Nuseirat refugee camp, “leaving dozens of martyrs and wounded in the streets” and continuing “its aggression against all areas of the Central Governorate”.
