The Gaza Health Ministry reported on Thursday that 20 people were killed and 150 injured by Israeli shelling. The victims were waiting for humanitarian aid at a roundabout in Gaza City.
Thomas White, a senior official at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, also reported 12 deaths in a strike on an overcrowded shelter in Gaza.
The agency did not directly blame Israel, which is the only party to the conflict with tanks. The Israeli military said it was “currently ruled out” that the strike was carried out by its aircraft or artillery, but it was still investigating. The military said the building may have been hit by a Hamas rocket.
The fighting in Khan Younis has isolated two main hospitals with hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people. A third hospital was evacuated overnight, White said. Thousands of people have tried to flee further south in recent days, crowding into shelters and tent camps near the border with Egypt.
More than 25,700 people have been killed and another 63,000 injured in the enclave since the attack on southern Israel on 7 October, when Gaza militants killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
