At least 39 people were killed by Israeli strikes across northern Gaza on Saturday, as rescue workers scrambled to find survivors beneath the rubble, according to Palestinian and hospital officials.
More than three dozen bodies arrived at the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, hospital director Fadel Naem said.
The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency group active in Gaza, said its emergency workers were digging for survivors at the site of a strike in the al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City and that it had pulled several dozen bodies from a building hit by an Israeli strike in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City.
Photo: AFP
Israel said that its fighter jets struck two Hamas military sites in the Gaza City area, but did not elaborate further.
Israel said that it was continuing to operate in central and southern Gaza and has pushed ahead with its invasion of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.
Most have fled the city, but the UN says no place in Gaza is safe and humanitarian conditions are dire as families shelter in tents and cramped apartments without adequate food, water or medical supplies.
Israel also said that it was investigating a separate incident into conduct of its soldiers after a video surfaced online showing a wounded Palestinian being transported on the hood of an Israeli military jeep in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
The video, which was verified by Reuters, showed a Palestinian resident of Jenin, Mujahed Azmi, strapped to the jeep as it passes two ambulances.
Israeli forces were fired at and exchanged fire, wounding a suspect and apprehending him, the Israeli military in a statement said.
Soldiers then contravened military protocol, the statement said.
The military said the “conduct of the forces in the video of the incident does not conform to the values” of the Israeli military and that the incident will be investigated and dealt with.
The individual was transferred to medics for treatment, it added.
Meanwhile, an aerial drone likely launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck and damaged a vessel in the Red Sea yesterday, officials said, the latest attack by the group targeting the vital maritime corridor.
The attack comes as the US has sent the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower back home after an eight-month deployment that saw it lead the US response to the Houthi assaults.
Those attacks have led to a drastic drop in shipping through the route crucial to Asian, Middle East and European markets in a campaign the Houthis say would continue as long as the Israel-Hamas war rages on.
The drone attack happened around dawn off the coast of the rebel-held port city of Hodeida, the British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations center said.
It said the vessel sustained damage, but its mariners on board “were reported safe.”
It did not elaborate on the extent of the damage, but said an investigation was ongoing.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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