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The death toll from a strike on a crowded shelter in Gaza has risen to 12, with over 75 wounded, according to Thomas White, a senior official with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. The update Thursday said the attack the previous day involved two tank shells.
The agency did not directly blame Israel, which is the only party to the conflict that has tanks. The Israeli military said it has “currently ruled out” that the strike was carried out by its aircraft or artillery but was still investigating. It says the building might have been hit by a Hamas rocket.
The fighting in Khan Younis has isolated its two main hospitals, stranding hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people inside. A third hospital was evacuated overnight, White said. Thousands of people rushed to escape farther south in recent days, crowding into shelters and tent camps near the border with Egypt.
The Health Ministry in Gaza says more than 25,700 people have been killed and another 63,000 wounded in the enclave since the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel, when militants from Gaza killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
Currently:
— Cease-fire efforts for the Israel-Hamas war gain steam. But an agreement still appears elusive.
— Freed Israeli hostage says she met Hamas’ leader in a tunnel, where she was kept in dire conditions.
— U.N. court will issue a ruling Friday on South Africa’s request for an order to halt Israel’s Gaza offensive.
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Here's the latest:
JERUSALEM — A United Nations official says the death toll from a strike on a crowded shelter in Gaza has risen to 12, with over 75 wounded.
Thomas White, a senior official with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Thursday that 15 of those wounded were in critical condition. UNRWA says two tank shells hit a building in a shelter housing thousands of displaced Palestinians on Wednesday in the southern city of Khan Younis, which has seen heavy fighting in recent days. The building caught fire, it said.
It did not directly blame Israel, which is the only party to the conflict that has tanks.
The Israeli military said it has “currently ruled out” that the strike was carried out by its aircraft or artillery but was still investigating. It says the building might have been hit by a Hamas rocket.
The fighting in Khan Younis has isolated its two main hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, stranding hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people inside.
White says a third hospital was evacuated overnight, and that among the patients who departed were women who had just undergone cesarean sections.
LONDON — British Foreign Secretary David Cameron says he has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there should be an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the fighting in Gaza that can lead to a permanent cease-fire.
Cameron is due to visit Qatar later Thursday to push for more aid to get into Gaza. A consignment of 17 tonnes (19 tons) of tents from the United Kingdom was due Thursday to be flown from Qatar to Egypt on its way to the territory.
The U.K. is a strong ally of Israel but is increasingly critical of its conduct of the war against Hamas.
Cameron said that “the scale of suffering in Gaza is unimaginable. More must be done, faster, to help people trapped in this desperate situation.” He called for Israel to fully restore water, fuel and electricity supplies to Gaza. “We need an immediate humanitarian pause to get aid in and hostages out, followed by a sustainable cease-fire, without a return to hostilities.”