At least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on Saturday in the central Gaza Strip, while the Israeli forces rescued four hostages in the same area.
Khalil Al-Dakran, director of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, told Xinhua that a large number of wounded Palestinians were sent to the hospital due to the intense Israeli bombing on the Nuseirat camp and the city of Deir Al-Balah, some of whom have been confirmed dead.
Wounded Palestinians were still being sent in, overwhelming the hospital amid a severe shortage of beds, medicines, medical consumables, and fuel to run the main emergency generator, said Al-Dakran.
Palestinian eyewitnesses told Xinhua that Israeli aircraft targeted the area with intensive firepower, and local civil defense teams and ambulances were unable to reach some injured people in time.
Smoke rose from all parts of central Gaza amid unprecedented air and artillery bombardment targeting these areas, according to local sources and eyewitnesses.
Palestinian security sources said deadly clashes broke out on the ground between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops raiding the Nuseirat camp under the cover of artillery and aerial bombardment. The troops withdrew, leaving several militants killed.
Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, said in a statement that Israel’s strikes targeted children and women, stressing that the Palestinian people “will not surrender, and the resistance will continue to defend their rights.”
Palestinian Presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the attack on the Nuseirat camp is a continuation of the “genocidal” war against the Palestinian people, for which the American administration should be held “fully responsible.”
This war will “destroy everything and push things towards a dangerous stage that will not achieve security or peace for anyone,” Abu Rudeina said in a press statement published by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
He called on the United Nations Security Council and the international community to stop the “bloody” war on Gaza.
The Israeli army, police, and intelligence body Shin Bet said in a joint statement that their fighters have been “attacking a terrorist structure” in the region and freed four Israeli hostages.
It noted that the kidnapped persons were rescued alive by Shin Bet fighters and the Special Police Unit from two separate areas in the heart of Nuseirat.
The rescued personnel had been transferred to Tel Hashomer Hospital in Israel for medical examinations, it noted.
The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks in the enclave has risen to 36,801, with 83,680 people injured, updated the Gaza health authorities on Saturday.
The Israeli army has been conducting a large-scale offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on the Israeli towns adjacent to the strip, during which approximately 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others were taken hostage.
Following the rescue of the four, 120 Israeli hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, with 43 of them considered by Israel as dead.■
