Tel Aviv [Israel], December 28: A suspected Israeli strike on a building near a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday is reported to have left many dead, with the Jewish state also hitting targets in Lebanon and the West Bank.
A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled health authority spoke of 20 dead and dozens injured in Khan Younis.
The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service wrote on X: "Dozens of martyrs and wounded in the bombing of a residential building in front of al-Amal Hospital." The information could not initially be independently verified. An Israeli army spokesperson said that the reports were being investigated.
The health authority of Hamas said the deaths meant 195 people had been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip within the last 24 hours. A spokesperson for Hamas said 16 families were affected, with a further 325 people injured.
Since the beginning of the war, 21,110 people have been killed in Gaza, the spokesperson said.
On the other side of Israel from Gaza, six Palestinians in the West Bank were killed in an Israeli missile strike, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
A drone shot at a house in the refugee camp in Tulkarm, Palestinian reports added. A seventh Palestinian was in a life-threatening condition with head injuries.
The Israeli army had earlier raided the camp.
The Israeli operation in the West Bank has escalated fears in the international community that the war will spread from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to the other Palestinian territory and also into Lebanon.
Incidents with Israelis in the West Bank have led to 298 Palestinians being killed since October 7, the Health Ministry said. Overall in 2023, 494 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed or have died during violent incidents, including while carrying out attacks.
An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon on Wednesday also killed three people, Lebanese state media reported.
The strike came after a series of attacks by the pro-Iranian Lebanese militia Hezbollah on Israeli posts close to the border on Tuesday.
Hezbollah said in a statement that one of its fighters was killed in the Israeli air raid, which targeted the town of Bint Jebil.
In rare good news, telecommunications services in the Gaza Strip were partially restored after they failed again on Tuesday due to the war.
"We would like to announce the gradual restoration of telecom services in the central and southern areas of Gaza Strip after a blackout caused by the ongoing aggression," the West Bank-based Palestinian telecoms company Paltel wrote on X.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, international lawyer Toby Cadman points to continuing Israeli evacuation orders for people of Gaza, only to be followed by attacks on areas where they were instructed to flee.
"The fact the Israeli authorities repeatedly say they give 'sufficient notice' to civilians so they can leave is still not justification for devastating civilian areas. And it's all the more worrying when we see suddenly civilians being moved from one area to another area and that area subsequently being attacked," Cadman said.
"I think the evidence is obviously mounting up for future prosecutions of war crimes because it's being documented in real time. We've seen statements, we've seen the conduct and the lack of justification, the lack of proportionality and the lack of distinction between military and civilian targets."
Source: Qatar Tribune