Israeli strikes on Gaza homes kill 47 civilians, 5 die in West Bank
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, Dec. 17, 2023. (Reuters Photo)


At least 47 Palestinians were killed Sunday in Israeli airstrikes targeting houses in Jabalia and the Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian media reported.

"35 Palestinians were killed and dozens were injured on Sunday during an Israeli bombing of a house in the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip," Palestine's official news agency WAFA reported.

At least 90 others were wounded and many others are still under the rubble, local sources said.

"The Israeli warplanes also targeted a house in Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip, killing about 12 citizens and wounding dozens, the majority of whom were already displaced," the agency also reported.

In a separate attack, the Israeli artillery fired an shell into the courtyard of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The shell did not explode but wounded at least two men, the agency added.

The Israeli navy also bombed several areas north of Khan Younis and its western coast, it said.

West Bank tolls climb

Also on Sunday, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians at a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as the Israeli army launched airstrikes on the camp.

The death toll from the raid on the Nur Shams camp in the West Bank city of Tulkarem climbed to five after the announcement of the deaths of two men aged 19 and 21 in hospital, the ministry said.

The Israeli operation at the camp began during the night, according to witnesses.

The director of the Thabet Thabet hospital, Amin Khader, told AFP that "five people arrived at the hospital with wounds, including one to the head."

An Israeli military spokesperson said airstrikes had targeted alleged terrorist groups who opened fire and threw explosives at Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that the Israeli forces are preventing ambulance and emergency crews from entering the Nour Shams camp to respond to the injured.

In a statement, the PRCS said: "An injured person was martyred in the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm as the occupation forces prevented PRCS ambulance crews from entering the camp to transfer the critically injured individual with a head injury despite coordination through the International Committee of the Red Cross."

"In a separate incident, the occupation forces arrested a PRCS volunteer from the ambulance while heading to transport a medical case from the camp after obtaining coordination," the aid organization added.

In a separate attack, another Palestinian youth succumbed to his wounds as a result of an Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

Medical sources at Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin announced on Sunday that he died due to injuries he sustained during an Israeli attack on the eastern neighborhood of Jenin during a raid by Israeli forces of the city on Dec. 12, which lasted for three days, the agency also reported.

Violence in the West Bank has spiked since the start of Israel's war on Gaza in retaliation to the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion.

More than 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since, health officials say.