Agencies
Tel Aviv/Gaza
At least 16 Palestinians have been killed in a new attack by the Israeli military in central Gaza, according to hospital reports.
The al-Awda hospital said 16 people were killed following an attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp. The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that several people were also injured.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that it "continues to attack terrorist targets as part of its operational activities in the Gaza Strip.” According to residents of Nuseirat, a prominent tower was also destroyed in the attack.
Reporting from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said on Thursday that Israeli ground forces were conducting a military operation seeking to expand the Netzarim Corridor – a 6.5km (4-mile) stretch established in the centre of the enclave by the Israeli military that divides northern and southern Gaza.
"In doing so, it carries out these attacks to destroy remaining residential buildings … that the Israeli military claims are being used as observation points by Palestinian fighters,” Mahmoud reported, adding that witnesses said there were large numbers of civilians inside these homes.
In northern Gaza, Israeli jets carried out air raids, targeting the remaining residential buildings in the town of Beit Lahiya, killing at least four people, Mahmoud said.
In the south, at least four people were killed on Thursday morning when Israeli drones attacked a group of Palestinian civilians near a camp for displaced people in the town of Abasan, east of the city of Khan Younis, according to the WAFA news agency.
The Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza says more than 44,300 people have been killed and almost 105,000 injured in the territory since the war began almost 14 months ago. The figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The United Nations said earlier this month that more than 70 percent of those confirmed killed in Gaza are women and children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the military has killed "almost 20,000 terrorists” in Gaza so far. The claims cannot be independently verified.
Also on Thursday, the UN’s Palestinian agency - the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) - estimated that up to 75,000 people are still in the embattled northern Gaza Strip.
"For over 50 days, they have been facing diminishing conditions for survival,” UNRWA wrote in a post on X.
It said the areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun have been cut off from humanitarian aid for weeks due to heavy fighting. The UN has attempted to reach these areas 91 times to provide assistance since October 6, UNRWA said, but "82 of these attempts were outright denied while 9 of them were impeded.”
A spokesman for the Israeli military said it was checking the reports, arguing that Israel recently opened further crossings into the Gaza Strip to enable more aid deliveries.
Israel is aiming to destroy the Palestinian organization Hamas in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attacks. Several towns in northern Gaza are considered Hamas strongholds. Israel accuses Hamas of deliberately hiding among civilians and of repeatedly intercepting aid deliveries.