Dozens die in Israeli bombardment of central and southern Gaza

GAZA STRIPS (AFP): Israeli strikes killed dozens in Gaza overnight Thursday-Friday, sources on both sides said on the 98th day of the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.

An AFP journalist reported strikes and artillery shelling hit areas between the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah, which is crowded with people who fled from the north.

The bombardment killed at least 59 people and wounded dozens more across the besieged territory, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.

The Israeli army said it had killed seven “terrorists” in a strike in Khan Yunis and a further 20 in the Maghazi area to the north.

AFP photographers witnessed black smoke billowing Friday morning above Rafah, where Palestinians gathered beside white body bags of the latest casualties.

“Does anyone care about us? Why is everyone silent?” asked one mourner at the hospital.

Elsewhere in Rafah, resident Fayad Abu Rjeila surveyed the wreckage of a building after an Israeli strike he said had killed civilians in their homes.

“They had nothing to do with anything. People who just wanted to live,” he told AFP.

“Why did they target them?“

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 23,469 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

Vowing to eliminate Hamas, Israel has carried out a relentless bombardment, alongside a ground invasion, since Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7.

Their unprecedented attack resulted in the death of about 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

The charity Oxfam International said on Thursday that the daily death toll in Gaza was higher than any other major conflict this century.

Oxfam’s Sally Abi Khalil said it is “unimaginable” that the international community stands by as the killing unfolds.

In northern Gaza, the World Health Organization said it had reached Gaza’s largest hospital on Thursday, delivering desperately needed fuel and medical supplies.

“The team reported that Al-Shifa, previously Gaza’s premier hospital, has (partially) re-established services,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter.