Israeli strikes across Gaza kill at least 57

CAIRO/GAZA: Israeli forces battled Hamas-led fighters in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and Palestinian health officials said at least 57 people were killed in Israeli bombardments of southern and central areas.

In Rafah, where Israeli forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a house, Gaza health officials said. In nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife, and two children were killed, they said.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike on a car killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded 26 others in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the officials said. The airstrike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street in the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi, the health ministry said. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior militant of the Islamic Jihad group, an ally of Hamas.


"We are looking into the reports stating that several civilians were injured as a result of the strike," the military statement said.

Reuters footage showed residents carrying bodies of the dead and wounded on carts and in rickshaws to hospitals. "The car was targeted, the blood was splashing, and shrapnel hit our tents and martyrs were left on the street. We screamed: 'We need an ambulance'. We put [the casualties] on carts and rickshaws and the ambulance came after a while," said eyewitness Tahrir Matir, who lives in a tent nearby.

UN school also hit
In the historic Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, at least four Palestinians were killed in separate shelling and aerial strikes in central Gaza, medics said. An Israeli airstrike also killed four in Sheikh Zayed in northern Gaza, they said. Hours later, an Israeli air strike on a UN-run school that housed displaced families in the Nuseirat camp killed 23 people and wounded many others, health officials said.