Gaza, Dec 26 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) At least 22 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Civil Defence in Gaza, told Xinhua that Israeli aircraft targeted tents housing displaced persons inside the Al-Muhabban school in northern Gaza City on Wednesday. Civil defence crews recovered at least seven bodies and 25 injured individuals from the school following the Israeli attacks, transferring them to a local hospital, Basal said. Local sources and eyewitnesses reported that the tents caught fire and some bodies were mutilated in the bombing. The Israeli military said in a press statement that an Israeli Air Force aircraft, acting on intelligence, targeted a Hamas member in the Al-Furqan area of Gaza City. The statement claimed the military took precautions, including the use of precision munitions, aerial photographs, and intelligence, to minimise civilian casualties. In Beit Hanoun town in northern Gaza, four people were killed in an Israeli bombing of a house sheltering displaced people, while paramedics reported four more deaths in an Israeli bombardment targeting a group of Palestinians east of Jabalia. Khalil Al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, said three bodies and dozens of wounded arrived at the hospital after a gathering east of the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza was targeted. The Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis also reported receiving four bodies following an Israeli airstrike on a house east of the city. According to an update released by Gaza’s health authorities on Wednesday, 45,361 Palestinians have been killed and 107,803 others injured since October 7, 2023. The Israeli escalation followed a surprise attack by Hamas on southern Israeli towns, which Israeli reports say resulted in approximately 1,200 Israeli deaths and over 200 taken hostage. –IANS int/rs
