Gaza civil defence says 52 killed by Israeli forces

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency on Thursday said at least 52 people, including eight children, were killed by Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory battered by more than 21 months of war.

The latest wave of deadly strikes and gunfire came just hours after Hamas, which runs Gaza, announced it was willing to release 10 hostages as part of indirect ceasefire talks with Israel in Qatar.

Israel has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, where the war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million people.

Civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughair told AFP that 52 people were killed across the territory, including 17 in a strike in front of a medical point in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Mughair said eight children and two women were among the dead following the strike in Deir el-Balah, adding Israeli aircraft targeted “a gathering of citizens in front of a medical point”.

Four people were killed and several injured in a pre-dawn air strike on a family home in Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza, Mughair added.

AFP footage from Al-Bureij showed a family including three young children sitting among rubble outside their tattered tent after an air strike hit a house next door.

‘Without warning’

“Suddenly — and without warning — the house with people inside was bombed,” said Olfat Salim, inspecting the damage to her tent, which was ripped and covered in dust.

“We were sleeping and saw dust and stones falling on us. We started screaming to wake our children from under the rubble. Thank God we managed to get them out.”

Mughair reported 27 more people killed in bombardment across the territory, including 15 people in five separate strikes in the area of Gaza City.

One person was killed southwest of the southern city of Khan Yunis by “Israeli military fire”, Mughair said.

Three more, including a woman, were killed by Israeli gunfire on civilians near an aid centre in the northwest of nearby Rafah, he added.

More than 600 people have been killed around aid distributions and convoys in Gaza since late May, when Israel began allowing in a trickle of supplies, the United Nations said in early July.