Israeli drone strike on Gaza hospital kills seven

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 18 Palestinians on Sunday, including seven people shot dead while waiting to collect food aid.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that seven people were killed in an Israeli drone strike that hit a hospital courtyard in Gaza City, in the territory’s north.

There was no comment from the Israeli military, which is preparing a broader offensive in Gaza City and has sent ground forces to the city’s Zeitun neighbourhood in recent days.

After more than 22 months of war, UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in Gaza, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in and convoys have been repeatedly looted.

Witnesses on Sunday reported Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into the morning.

Bassal said four people were killed in a strike that hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the southern area of Khan Yunis.

The civil defence spokesman said Israel continues its intense bombardment of Gaza City’s Zeitun, where troops have carried out a ground operation for the past week.

He said there were many casualties, but civil defence crews were facing “enormous difficulties reaching those trapped under the rubble” due to the ongoing violence and lack of equipment.

Israel on Saturday hinted at an approaching call to push civilians from Gaza City ahead of the new offensive demanded by the security cabinet.

A defence ministry statement said that “as part of the preparations to move the population from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their protection, the supply of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza will resume.”

Hamas later slammed the move, saying the announcement was part of a “brutal assault to occupy Gaza City”.

On the ground on Sunday, Bassal said six people were killed by Israeli gunfire near an aid distribution point in the south.

Another person was killed near an aid site in central Gaza, Bassal added, with a nearby hospital saying the body had been taken there.