Gaza hospital receives 26 dead after strike on Khan Yunis building

GAZA: At least 26 people have been killed in a strike on a residential building in the southern Gaza Strip’s Khan Yunis region, the director of a local hospital said Saturday.

A first consignment of fuel has entered Gaza, allowing communications to resume in the territory.

A two-day blackout caused by fuel shortages ended after a first delivery arrived from Egypt late Friday, but UN officials continued to plead for a ceasefire, warning no part of Gaza is safe.

On Saturday, the director of the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis said it had received the bodies of 26 people, as well as 23 people with serious injuries, after an air strike on a residential building in the southern region’s Hamad city.

Lack of fuel is jeopardizing ‘the entire architecture of the humanitarian response’ in the Israel-blockaded Gaza, where raw sewage is now flowing in the streets, the head of UNRWA, the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees earlier said.

In a wide-ranging briefing to journalists in Geneva, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini reiterated calls for a ceasefire and addressed misinformation targeting the agency, including claims that aid is being diverted.

He said, “He has also received reports of UN schools being used for military purposes.”

In his briefing, Lazzarini, the UNRWA chief, said he had received reports that Gaza was under a communications blackout due to the lack of fuel.