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

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Health officials in Gaza said on 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 Houthi 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?"

Ashraf Al Qudra, spokesman for the health ministry in the territory, reported "more than 60 martyrs" in Israeli air strikes and artillery fire, with dozens more wounded.

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

The war, in which Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, began when the fighters launched their unprecedented surprise attack on Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

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 per cent 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?”

 ‘Inhumanity... beyond comprehension’ 

The United Nations humanitarian office, OCHA, told AFP that Israel was blocking aid convoys into northern Gaza.

“They have been very systematic in not allowing us to support hospitals,” said OCHA’s head for the Palestinian territories, Andrea De Domenico, decrying “a level of inhumanity... beyond comprehension”.

In central Gaza, a lack of fuel forced the shutdown of the main generator of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah, the health ministry said.

Health ministry spokesman Qudra accused Israel of “deliberately targeting hospitals... to put them out of service”, warning of “devastating repercussions”.

Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in Gaza since the war erupted.

Fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals are partly functioning, the World Health Organisation says.

In the israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence has surged during the Hamas-Israel war, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians.

Palestinian news agency Wafa identified the three killed as a 19-year-old and two 16-year-olds.

The International Court of Justice this week heard arguments in a case launched by South Africa, accusing Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention over the Gaza war.

Both Israel and its ally the United States have dismissed the case as groundless, and the court is likely to make an initial ruling within weeks.