Gaza ministry says dozens killed in Israeli strikes on 99th day of war

Palestinian Territories – AFP

Health officials in Gaza said Saturday that Israeli strikes overnight killed at least 60 people in the besieged territory, which was also grappling with a telecommunications blackout on the war’s 99th day.

Fears of the conflict widening intensified after US and British forces struck pro-Hamas Huthi rebels in Yemen following attacks on Red Sea shipping, with the US military announcing a fresh air strike on Saturday.

Witnesses in the Gaza Strip reported Israeli bombardment in the early morning. An AFP correspondent said intense shelling and air strikes hit the Palestinian territory’s south overnight.

“I was visiting my sister, and when I returned I found my house was bombed,” said 60-year-old Samir Qashta, a resident of Rafah in southern Gaza, where many people have fled.

“Is my house hurting Israel in any way?”

The Israeli army said its forces had struck dozens of rocket launchers that were “ready to be used” in central Gaza, and eliminated four “terrorists” in air strikes on Khan Yunis, Gaza’s major southern city, near Rafah.

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the health ministry, reported “more than 60 martyrs” in Israeli air strikes and artillery fire, with dozens more wounded.

Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza since Hamas’s October 7 attack has killed at least 23,843 people, mostly women and children, according to an updated toll on Saturday from the territory’s health ministry.

At Rafah’s Al-Najjar hospital, mourners gathered and prayed around the bodies of slain relatives. One man held the body of a child, wrapped in white cloth, ahead of burial.

Internet and telecommunications services were cut Friday as a result of Israeli bombardment, the main operator Paltel said, reporting the latest such disruption.

The Palestinian Red Crescent posted that the outage was increasing the challenges in “reaching the wounded and injured promptly”.

Winter rains have exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN estimates 1.9 million — nearly 85 percent of the population — have been displaced. Many have sought shelter in Rafah and other southern areas.

“It was a harsh and difficult night,” said Nabila Abu Zayed, 40, who now lives in a tent at Al-Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis.

“The rain flooded our tent… We spent the night standing with hundreds of displaced people like us in the corridors of the maternity ward,” she told AFP.

“It was very cold and we had no winter clothes or blankets. All of my children are sick.”

“There was bombing through the night,” said Abu Zayed. “Where will we go?”