Israeli forces kill child in hospital in Gaza's Khan Younis city

By Mustafa Haboush

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) — Israeli forces on Sunday killed a child in a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.

“A 13-year-old child, displaced, has been martyred at the PRCS Al-Amal Hospital, in Khan Younis due to being shot by an Israeli drone while inside the hospital building,” the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said in a statement.

In a separate incident, three other Palestinians were killed and others were injured in an Israeli raid that targeted a house in the Japanese neighborhood, west of Khan Younis, medical sources told Anadolu.

- Ongoing clashes

Fierce clashes broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinian resistance fighters in the Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj neighborhoods, east of Gaza City, after the army attempted to advance deeper into the two neighborhoods, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.

Eyewitnesses reported sounds of heavy machine guns, artillery shells, and light bombs were heard in the two neighborhoods in the morning.

Israeli tanks dropped smoke bombs in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, while helicopters were seen flying over the area of the clash, witnesses added.

In Rafah, the southern-most city in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military vehicles advanced dozens of meters from the southeastern border.

Fierce clashes broke out Saturday between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces penetrating east of Rafah, according to eyewitnesses.

The number of Israeli army deaths reached 485 officers and soldiers, including 158 since the start of the ground offensive on Oct. 27.

Since the attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip, killing at least 20,258 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 53,688 others, according to health authorities in the enclave. The official Israeli death toll stands at 1,200.

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

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi