Gaza: Israeli tanks pushed deeper into central and southern Gaza on Saturday, pressing a deadly offensive that has razed much of the besieged enclave and that Israel has said may last several months.
Fighting was focused around refugee camps in Al Bureij, Nuseirat, Maghazi and Khan Yunis, backed by intensive air strikes that filled hospitals with injured Palestinians.
The bombardment has killed 165 people and wounded 250 others in Gaza over the past 24 hours, health authorities in the Hamas-run territory said.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, the biggest and most important medical facility in the south of the tiny, crowded territory, a Red Crescent video showed paramedics rushing a tiny, dust-covered baby into a busy hospital as one shouted “there is breathing, there is breathing”.
Refugee camps being targeted; 165 more killed over the past 24 hours; Hamas condemns US sale of arms to Israel.
Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes by Israel’s assault, which began on Oct 7.
The offensive has killed 21,672 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza, with more than 56,000 injured and thousands more feared dead under the rubble.
The conflict risks spreading across the region, drawing in what Israelis call “Iran-aligned groups” in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, which have exchanged fire with Israel and its US ally, or targeted merchant shipping.
Bombardment has smashed houses, apartment blocks and businesses and put hospitals out of action. On Saturday, the Palestinian culture ministry said Israeli strikes had struck a medieval bathhouse. The old Great Mosque was hit earlier in the war.
