Israel strikes kill 32 in Gaza

Israeli strikes killed another 32 people in the Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory said Friday, more than nine months into Hamas’s war with Israel.

Fighting raged from the north to the south of the coastal territory as talks have continued towards reaching a truce and hostage-release deal.

Hamas militants seized the captives during their unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war.

In a brief statement, Gaza’s health ministry said “32 martyrs, a majority of them children and women, were taken to hospitals overnight, because of continued massacres” by Israeli forces.

Hamas media reported “more than 70 air strikes” in several parts of the territory. This included locations in Gaza City in the north, Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre, along with Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south, Hamas said.

Israel’s military on Friday said troops are continuing operations in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.

“Over the past day, the troops eliminated numerous terrorists in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes, and dismantled terrorist infrastructure in the area,” a military statement said.

In central Gaza, troops killed an unspecified number of militants “who posed a threat” while soldiers “located a weapons production workshop” and “a large amount of funds used for terrorist activity,” the statement said.

In far-northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, Israeli aircraft struck targets in an area from which projectiles were fired into southern Israel on Thursday, the military added.

Also on Thursday, around 60 bodies were found under the rubble of Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiya neighbourhood, Gaza’s Civil Defence agency said.

The discovery came after Israeli troops ended a two-week operation which Gaza’s Civil Defence and residents said had left the area in ruins.

Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 85 percent of buildings are now uninhabitable and Shujaiya has been left a “disaster zone”.

On Wednesday Israel’s army called on all of Gaza City’s residents to, for their safety, leave the area which they called “a dangerous combat zone”.

The United Nations said up to 350,000 people had been staying in the city.

AFP