DM Monitoring
An Israeli airstrike hit a building at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, killing at least six people, including a surgeon, and wounding 20 others early on Thursday, Gaza’s civil defence service said.
Mahmoud Basal, the service’s spokesperson, told Reuters that the strike hit the hospital’s surgery department, causing extensive damage.
Medics identified the slain surgeon as Rezik Abushira. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel has stepped up attacks on Gaza, saying Hamas is attempting to regroup and replenish its arsenal. Hamas, meanwhile, says it remains committed to the year-old ceasefire agreement and accuses Israel of undermining the truce.
At least 1,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to health officials in the territory. Israel says four of its soldiers have been killed during the same period.
Earlier, Torrential rain in Gaza caused a sand embankment to collapse on to tents, killing a woman and three small children in an incident that highlighted the danger facing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians as the rainy winter season sets in.
Medics said heavy rain late on Sunday washed away a rocky sand bank abutting a camp for displaced families south of Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. A woman and two of her children, aged 8 and 6, were killed. A fourth child, aged 4, was also killed, and six others were injured.
Video circulated on social media, which media could not immediately verify, showed residents using hammers to break large sandy rocks and others removing sand with shovels before bodies wrapped in blankets and fabric sheeting, stained with blood, were pulled out.
