Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip): At least 32 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in southern Gaza overnight, Palestinian medical officials said. The European Hospital in the hard-hit city of Khan Younis said it received the bodies after heavy Israeli airstrikes and ground operations in the city. It said the dead include several women and children, and that dozens of people were wounded.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack ignited the war there, even as attention has shifted to Lebanon, where Israel is battling Hezbollah, and to Iran, which launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel late Tuesday. Dr. Saleh al-Hams, head of the nursing department at the European Hospital, said dozens of dead and wounded people were brought to his facility and the Nasser Hospital starting at around 3 a.m.
Some of the wounded were in critical condition, meaning the death toll could rise, he said. He said Israel had carried out heavy airstrikes as its ground forces staged an incursion into three neighbourhoods in Khan Younis. Israel carried out a massive offensive earlier this year that left large parts of the city in ruins. Throughout the war, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza where they have previously fought Hamas and other armed groups as the militants have regrouped.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people on Oct. 7 and took around 250 hostage. Around 100 are still in captivity in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, flattened wide areas across Gaza and displaced the vast majority of its 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
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