Gaza hospital receives 209 wounded, 131 dead after attacks on refugee camps: Medical charity

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza received 209 wounded and 131 dead following Israeli attacks on two refugee camps, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Monday.

"After yesterday’s bombings of Al-Maghazi & Al-Bureij refugee camps, Al-Aqsa Hospital reports having admitted 209 injured and 131 dead so far,” MSF said on X, adding around half of the victims were women and children.

Saying that its doctors and staff are providing trauma wound care for a variety of war-related injuries, MSF noted that "no one and nowhere is safe in Gaza.”

"We need a sustained #ceasefire now to prevent more deaths and injuries, to ensure the delivery of unhindered aid and a massive scale up to meet medical needs," it added.

Israel continues to bombard the Gaza Strip from the air and land in retaliation for an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has surged to 20,674, the Health Ministry in the territory said Monday.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra also said that 54,536 people had been injured in the months-long offensive.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with half of the coastal territory's housing damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.