Gaza’s civil defence agency said Tuesday that Israeli air strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, in the central Nuseirat district.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes were carried out overnight and into the morning and “targeted a number of citizens’ homes” in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The local Al-Awda hospital said it had received “the bodies of 30 martyrs, including 14 women and 12 children”.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, whose forces have been conducting operations against militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip for almost 22 months.
The Israeli offensive, triggered by a bloody attack by the Palestinian group on October 7, 2023 attack, has killed more than 59,900 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
At the weekend, under pressure from international opinion to head off the territory’s slide into famine, Israel declared a series of “tactical pauses” which began on Sunday to allow aid deliveries.
According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the pause in military operations covers “key populated areas” between 10 am (0700 GMT) and 8 pm every day.
Designated aid convoy routes will be secure from 6 am to 11 pm, Netanyahu’s office said.
Overnight, however, strikes continue.
COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that more than 200 truckloads of aid were distributed by the UN and aid agencies on Monday.
Another 260 trucks were permitted to cross into Gaza to deposit aid at collection points, four UN tankers brought in fuel and 20 pallets of aid were airdropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes, COGAT said.
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© Agence France-Presse
