Deir Al-Balah: Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip Wednesday night and Thursday, killing at least 34 Palestinians, including 10 people waiting for care outside a medical clinic, according to local hospitals and aid workers. The Israeli military also announced that a soldier was killed in Gaza.
The fighting in Gaza has shown no sign of slowing as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Donald Trump in Washington this week to work on a US-led ceasefire plan. Hopes for an agreement in the near term appeared to be fading as Netanyahu prepared to return to Israel.
Netanyahu is holding firm to the idea that Hamas must be destroyed, while Hamas wants a complete end to the war following the proposed 60-day truce.
Gaza’s Nasser Hospital reported a total of 21 deaths in airstrikes in the southern town of Khan Younis and the nearby coastal area of Muwasi. It said three children and their mother, as well as two additional women, were among the dead.
In central Gaza, at least 13 people were killed in the city of Deir al-Balah, including at least 10 people waiting to receive nutritional supplements at a medical clinic early Thursday, according to Project Hope, an aid group that runs the clinic. Two women and five children were among the dead.
“This is just a tragedy; it is a violation of humanitarian laws. No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” said Dr Mithqal Abutaha, the group’s project manager, who was at another clinic at the time.
“It was a horrific scene,” he added. “People had to come seeking health and support, but instead they faced death.”
He said the clinic, a humanitarian facility well known to all parties, was mildly damaged and will be closed for several days.
The Israeli military said it struck near the medical centre when it was targeting a militant who had infiltrated into Israel on October 7, 2023.