Israeli strikes kill at least 42 people in Central Gaza  

 

A Palestinian man reacts as casualties from an Israeli strike are brought into a hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Jan. 3, 2025.

Hospital workers said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 42 people in Gaza late Thursday into Friday, as mediators were dispatched to resume ceasefire talks in Doha.

Staff at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah told The Associated Press that more than a dozen women and children were killed in attacks that hit targets in central Gaza, including Nuseirat, Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al-Balah.

Israeli attacks hit many of the same areas Thursday, bringing the death toll over the past two days to at least 110 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Freelance journalist Omar al-Derawi was among those killed Friday, according to the AP. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in December that more than 130 Palestinian reporters had been killed in the war.

On the social media platform X, the Israel Defense Forces, IDF, said Friday that fighter jets and aircraft attacked about 40 Hamas “terrorist concentration points and command and control complexes” throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours in a joint operation of the Israeli Air Force and the IDF Southern Command.

The IDF said dozens of Hamas terrorists operated from the compounds, some of which were established in spaces that previously were used as schools.

“This is another example of Hamas\’s cynical and systematic use of civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip for terrorist purposes,” the IDF said.

The Israeli military said it took many steps prior to the attacks to prevent harming civilians, “including the use of precision weapons, aerial observations, and additional intelligence information.”

The IDF also reported early Friday it intercepted a drone and shot down a missile, each launched from Yemen. From its X account, the IDF said the drone was intercepted before it crossed into Israeli territory, and that no alerts were activated.

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By：VOA