Camp refugees among 40 killed in Gaza as Israeli strikes continue

Israeli military strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians overnight and on Friday in the Gaza Strip, many of them in the Nuseirat refugee camp at the centre of the enclave, medics said, after Israeli tanks pulled back from parts of the camp.

Medics said they had recovered 19 bodies of Palestinians killed in northern areas of Nuseirat, one of the enclave’s eight long-standing refugee camps. Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 Palestinians in a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza Strip, medics said.

Others were killed in the northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip, medics added. There was no fresh statement by the Israeli military on Friday, but on Thursday it said its forces were continuing to “strike terror targets as part of the operational activity in the Gaza Strip”. Israeli tanks had entered northern and western areas of Nuseirat on Thursday. They withdrew from northern areas on Friday but remained active in western parts of the camp.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said teams were unable to respond to distress calls from residents trapped in their homes. Dozens of Palestinians returned on Friday to areas where the army had retreated to check on damage to their homes.

Medics said an Israeli drone on Friday had killed Ahmed Al-Kahlout, head of the Intensive Care Unit at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, where the army has been operating since early October.

Israeli tanks enter border village in Lebanon

Four Israeli tanks have entered the western side of the border village of Khiyam, Lebanon’s official news agency said on Friday, following a ceasefire that took effect on Wednesday.