Four people, two of them children, are killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, which is designated as a humanitarian zone
Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 20 Palestinians on Monday, November 18, including six people in attacks on tents housing displaced families, medics said.
Four people, two of them children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, which is designated as a humanitarian zone, while two died in temporary shelters in the southern city of Rafah and another in drone fire, Gaza health officials said.
In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, medics said an Israeli missile struck a house, killing at least two people and wounding several others. On Sunday, November 17, medics and residents said dozens of people were killed or wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a multi-floor residential building in the town.
Another airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed seven people and wounded 10, medics said. Later on Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed four people in the Nuseirat camp in the central area of the coastal enclave, they added.
The Israeli military, which has been fighting Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza since October 2023 in a war that has left Gaza in ruins, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Monday’s incidents.
On Sunday, the military said it had conducted strikes on “terrorist targets” in Beit Lahiya. Israel accuses Hamas and allied militants of operating within residential areas including hospitals for cover. Hamas denies using the civilian population and facilities for military purposes.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 76 Palestinians across the territory over the past 24 hours.
In Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives of Palestinians killed in an airstrike on tents housing displaced families sat beside bodies wrapped in blankets and white shrouds to pay farewell before walking them to graves.
Child malnutrition growing
“My brother wasn’t the only one; many others have been martyred in this brutal way — children torn to pieces, civilians shredded. They weren’t carrying weapons or even knew ‘the resistance’, yet they were ripped apart into fragments,” said Mohammed Aboul Hassan, who lost his brother in the attack.
“We remain steadfast, patient and resilient, and by the will of God, we will never falter. We will stay steadfast and patient,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli army sent tanks and soldiers into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, early last month in what it said was a campaign to fight regrouping Hamas militants mounting guerrilla-style, hit-and-run attacks.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, said it was under siege by Israeli forces and the World Health Organization had been unable to deliver supplies of food, medicine and surgical equipment.
Cases of malnutrition among children are increasing, he said, and the hospital was operating at a minimal level.
“We receive daily distress calls, but we are unable to assist them due to the lack of ambulances, and the situation is catastrophic,” he said. “Yesterday, I received a distress call from women and children trapped under the rubble, and due to my inability to help them, they are now among the martyrs (dead).”
Later on Monday, COGAT, the Israeli military agency that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs, said it facilitated the delivery of 10,000 liters of fuel and 149 packages of medical equipment to hospitals in northern Gaza on Sunday.
It also said it permitted the transfer of 64 patients and their companions from Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda Hospitals to functioning hospitals elsewhere in the enclave.
Israel said it had killed hundreds of militants in the three northern areas, which residents said were cut off from Gaza City, making it difficult and dangerous for them to flee. The armed wings of Hamas and allied militant group Islamic Jihad said they had killed many Israeli soldiers in anti-tank rocket and mortar fire attacks during the same period.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says over 43,800 people have been confirmed killed, and almost the entire 2.3 million population displaced, since the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.
That day, Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in cross-border attacks on communities in southern Israel, and continue to hold dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. – Rappler.com
