DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The death toll from Israeli strikes in the central Gaza Strip rose to 25, including five children, as more bodies have been recovered, hospital officials said Friday. Sixteen people had initially been reported killed in two strikes on Thursday on the central Nuseirat refugee camp, but officials from the Al-Aqsa hospital said bodies continued to be brought in. Overall, the hospital said they had received 21 dead bodies from the strikes, including some transferred from the Awda hospital, where they had been brought the day before.
One of the strikes killed an 18-month-old and his 10-year-old sister — the children’s mother was missing as of Friday and the father was killed by an Israeli airstrike four months ago, the family told AP journalists at Aqsa hospital. Strikes on a motorcycle in Zuwaida and on a house in Deir al-Balah on Friday killed four more, the hospital officials said, bringing the overall toll to 25. The Israeli military did not comment on the specific strikes but said it had killed armed militants in central and southern Gaza Thursday.
Israel’s blistering offensive on the Gaza Strip has killed over 43,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, say health officials inside Gaza who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. They say over half of the dead are women and children. Israel began bombarding Gaza after the Hamas attack on Israel Oct.
7, when the militants killed roughly 1,200 people and took some 250 hostage.