CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS DETAILS
By Mohamed Majed
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – The death toll from Saturday's Israeli bombardment of a mosque in Shati Camp increased to 22, with another 12 killed by the Israeli army in three separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
The Gaza Civil Defense Service said in a statement: "We recovered seven martyrs and transported seven wounded from a residential house for the Youssef family that was targeted by the Israeli occupation (forces) in the Abu Skander area in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza City.”
In another attack, “We also recovered three martyrs and transported 20 wounded from a residential tower for the Al-Haddad family in the Shabiyah area in central Gaza City after it was targeted by Israeli warplanes,” it added.
In a separate statement, the Civil Defense Service said "The number of martyrs of the Shati Camp massacre west of Gaza City has risen to 22."
"Several of the injured remain in critical condition," it said, without providing details on whether seven died in a hospital on Sunday or seven bodies were recovered from the mosque's collapsed structure.
On Saturday, an Israeli attack on a mosque in the Shati camp in central Gaza killed at least 10 Palestinians and injured 20 more, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Civil Defense Agency. However, the death toll was later increased to 15.
Meanwhile, in the southern Gaza Strip, at least two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on the Rafah crossing.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that “two Palestinians were killed Sunday in an occupation (forces) bombing that targeted the vicinity of the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.”
Israel seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 7, after a military offensive that ignored international appeals.
Cairo responded by rejecting Israel's coordination on the crossing, accusing Tel Aviv of causing a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.
Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
More than 38,400 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 88,500 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
* Writing by Ikram Kouachi