Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 26 Palestinians, including six children, marking one of the highest death tolls since an agreement was reached to halt the fighting.
Medical officials said Israeli missiles struck locations in both northern and southern Gaza, including an apartment in Gaza City and a tent camp in Khan Younis.
While Israeli planes also carried out further strikes on the eastern part of the Bureij camp in central Gaza, the army issued expulsion orders for a building in Khan Younis, according to local officials.
Earlier on Saturday, Palestinian officials said Israeli forces fired artillery shells east of Khan Younis and Gaza City.
The strikes came a day before officials were scheduled to reopen a border crossing with Egypt in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.
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Al-Shifa Hospital said a Saturday morning strike on an apartment building in Gaza City killed three children, along with their aunt and grandmother. The hospital added that the children’s mother survived.
Nasser Hospital said the strike on the tent camp sparked a fire that killed seven people, including a father, his three children, and three grandchildren.
Meanwhile, a strike on a police station killed at least 11 officers, including four policewomen, along with inmates held at the station.
Since the US-brokered truce between Hamas and Israel took effect in October, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said that Israeli strikes have killed more than 500 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and injured at least 1,412.
