At least 25 people were killed and another 50 wounded in attacks on tents for displaced Palestinians sheltering in southern Gaza, according to the territory’s Heath Ministry and emergency workers.
Witnesses whose relatives died in one of the bombardments near a Red Cross field hospital told The Associated Press that Israeli forces fired a second volley that killed people who came out of their tents.
The locations of the attacks provided by the Civil Defense appear to be just outside an Israeli-designated safe zone on Gaza's Mediterranean coast. The Israeli military said the episode was under review but that “there is no indication that a strike was carried out by the IDF” inside the safe zone.
Israel is pushing ahead with the military operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from fighting elsewhere in Gaza. Most have now fled Rafah, but the United Nations says no place in Gaza is safe and humanitarian conditions are dire as families shelter in tents and cramped apartments.
Acute food shortages in northern Gaza are driving up the number of children suffering from malnutrition, the head of a major hospital said Friday, and his staff has treated some 250 malnourished kids so far. Palestinians face widespread hunger as the war has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and basic goods to Gaza, which is now totally dependent on aid.
Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,400 people in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.
