Israeli strikes on Gaza kill at least 38 people

CAIRO: Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip killed at least 38 Palestinians on Wednesday, most of them in an airstrike on a house in Beit Lahiya town on the northern edge of the enclave, medics said.

The Beit Lahiya strike killed at least 22 people, including women and children, health officials said. Relatives listed the names of the dead on social media.

More than 30 people were living in the multi-storey building before it was struck, and several family members remained missing as rescue operations continued through the morning, the Palestinian WAFA news agency said.


The Israeli military told Reuters it had launched a strike targeting Hamas militants near the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is located between Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, towns on the northern edge of Gaza under Israeli siege for two months.

It said it was continuing to examine the incident but described the number of fatalities reported by Palestinian medics and media as "inaccurate" and not aligning with the army's information.

In nearby Beit Hanoun, also part of the area under siege, medics said an Israeli airstrike killed and wounded several people, without giving an exact toll. Rescue workers said several people were trapped under rubble.

Earlier on Wednesday, at least seven Palestinians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, medics told Reuters.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service and medics said four other people were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes on two houses in Gaza City, including journalist Eman Al-Shanti and her son. She was the 193rd journalist killed by Israel since the start of the war, the Palestinian Union of Journalists said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that two rockets were fired from the central Gaza Strip into Israel but fell in open areas and caused no injuries.