At least 16 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip

By Mehmet Nuri Ucar

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least 16 Palestinians, mostly children, were killed and 50 injured in an attack by the Israeli army on a UN-owned school in the central Gaza Strip and the southern city of Khan Yunis, media reports said Saturday.

The army targeted a school belonging to the UN Relief and Public Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp in Gaza from the air and sea, according to the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

At least four Palestinians were killed and others were injured in the attack.

Israeli warplanes separately targeted a house where a large number of displaced people were sheltering in Khan Yunis.

At least 12 Palestinians, mostly children, were killed and 50 others, most of them children and women, were injured.

There were also casualties in Israeli attacks on different points of the blockaded Gaza Strip from the air, land and sea.

Since Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, Israel has continued relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 22,722 Palestinians and injuring 58,166, said health authorities.

At least 9,280 children have been killed in the Israeli onslaught, according to data released by the Gaza Media Office on Monday.

Israeli authorities claimed that the Hamas attacks have killed around 1,200 Israelis.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

The army announced that 510 soldiers have been killed since Oct, 7, when attacks on Gaza began -- 176 during the land invasion process.

On Nov. 24, a total of 81 Israeli and 240 Palestinian prisoners were released during a "humanitarian pause," which was granted for four days in the fighting and later extended for another three days.

Meanwhile, Israel has continued to detain and imprison thousands of Palestinians.

Since Oct. 7, a total of 326 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by Israeli forces and illegal Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

In the ongoing clashes between the Israeli army and Hezbollah on the Lebanese border since Oct. 8, a total of 28 Lebanese civilians, 148 Hezbollah members, five Israeli civilians and nine Israeli soldiers died.

*Writing by Merve Berker