At least 30 Palestinians were killed and 50 wounded when an Israeli strike hit a post office serving as a shelter for Gaza residents, medics said, and the Israeli military said on Friday it had been targeting a senior Islamic Jihad member.
An Israeli strike on a post office sheltering Gaza residents killed at least 30 Palestinians. It wounded 50, medics said, and the Israeli military said on Friday it had been targeting a senior Islamic Jihad member.
Medics reported that the families who have been displaced due to the 14-month-long conflict had taken refuge at the postal facility in Nuseirat camp and that the strike late Thursday brought the death toll on the day in the enclave to 66.
Israel said it was targeting an Islamic Jihad leader behind attacks against Israeli civilians and troops, accused of exploiting civilian infrastructure and population as a human shield for his activities.
An Israeli military statement said it was reviewing reports on the number of casualties. It did not identify the Islamic Jihad member by name.
Nuseirat is one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic camps originally for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war around the establishment of Israel. Today, it is part of a dense urban area crowded with displaced people throughout the enclave.
Earlier on Thursday, two Israeli strikes in southern Gaza killed 13 Palestinians who Gaza medics and Hamas said were part of a force protecting humanitarian aid trucks. Israel’s military said they were Hamas militants trying to hijack the shipment.
Many of those killed in the attacks on Rafah and Khan Younis had links to Hamas, according to sources close to the militant group.
