GAZA CITY, Palestine: At least 12 people were killed in renewed Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, as the total death toll in the Palestinian territory since October 2023 surpassed 52,900.
A medical source said three family members lost their lives in Israeli shelling of a tent sheltering displaced civilians in the northern town of Beit Lahia.
Three more people were killed when Israeli forces bombed the Shejaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City.
A fourth Palestinian died of his wounds sustained in an earlier Israeli strike in the same neighbourhood.
Another civilian was killed and two others were injured in a drone strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, medics said.
One more Palestinian was injured in a similar strike in the Bureij refugee camp.
Two more people were killed, including a journalist, in Israeli bombardment of the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, a medical source said.
The Israeli military alleged in a Telegram post that “significant Hamas terrorists” had been “operating from within a command and control centre” at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s main city, just north of Rafah.
“The compound was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF (army) troops,” it alleged.
Gaza’s Interior Ministry also said that a police commander was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis at dawn.
Another Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in the western part of the same city, a medical source said.
The Israeli artillery shelled the Al-Tuffah and Shejaiya neighbourhoods of eastern Gaza City amid intense gunfire from military vehicles, according to witnesses.
Meanwhile, the army continued its systematic home demolitions in eastern Gaza City and Rafah in southern Gaza, witnesses said.
More than 52,900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its relentless bombardment campaign on October 7, 2023, the Palestinian territory’s health ministry said.
US-Israeli hostage
Israel had paused military operations in Gaza to allow for the release of Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old US-Israeli soldier who had been held hostage since October 2023.
Alexander, believed to be the last surviving hostage with US citizenship, was released on Monday ahead of a Middle East visit by US President Donald Trump.
Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce.
