Palestinian authorities are reporting heavy Israel shelling in several cities in Gaza hours after world powers demanded more aid be allowed into the besieged Palestinian territory.
The health ministry in Gaza said 18 people were killed in a strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, as other targets were hit up and down the strip on the 78th day of the Israeli invasion.
The ministry said more than 400 people had been killed in Israeli bombardments over 48 hours. More than 36 people were killed in the hours shortly before and after the UN Security Council approved a resolution demanding “immediate, safe and unhindered” deliveries of life-saving aid be rushed to Gaza “at scale”.
According to Palestine’s official Wafa news agency, Israeli aircraft bombed a residential apartment in the vicinity of al-Ihsan Mosque in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 18 citizens, mostly children and women, and wounding dozens of others.
Warplanes also targeted two houses in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in two deaths and dozens of injuries.
In Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, seven people were killed and several others injured when Israeli jets targeted a civilian car.
مشاهد من الغارات العنيفة التي شنّها الاحتلال الصهيوني على عدة مناطق متفرقة في مدينة رفح جنوبي القطاع pic.twitter.com/4fri3m3kvt
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) December 22, 2023
The Israeli artillery hit the last floor of a house belonging to the Arafa family in the Al-Amal neighborhood in the city of Khan Yunis, where three people were killed and several others injured. Two more people were killed in a bombing targeting the town of Abasan to the east.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Israeli warplanes heavily bombed the area outside al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis.
Ambulance crews recovered the bodies of six people from under the rubble of the al-Debs family home in Jabalia north of the Gaza Strip, which was targeted by Israeli aircraft.
An aerial raid also destroyed a water desalination plant on Old Gaza Street in the town of Jabalia.
Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in early October, the besieged Palestinian territory’s hospitals, medical centers and health clinics have been one of the main targets of the regime’s bombardment campaign.
According to the Gaza government’s media office on Friday, the Israeli forces have targeted 138 hospitals and medical centers, leading to total or partial destruction of facilities.
Israel waged the devastating war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise operation against the occupying entity in response to its decades-long violence against Palestinians.
The bloodiest-ever war on Gaza has so far killed more than 20,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 56,000 others, with thousands more believed lost and buried under rubble.
The regime has also cut off most water, food and power supplies into Gaza.
