Israel-Hamas war: Dozens killed in strikes in Gaza City – DW – 06/23/2024

At least 39 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on separate neighborhoods in Gaza City on Saturday, said officials in the Hamas-run territory.

The Israeli military said warplanes struck “two Hamas military infrastructure sites in the area of Gaza City,” in the north of the Palestinian enclave.

Hamas, which Germany, the US and others classify as a terrorist group, did not comment on Israel’s claim that it struck the Islamist militant group’s sites.

The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency group active in Gaza, said its emergency workers were at the site of a strike in the Shati camp west of Gaza City.

The group said it had pulled several bodies from the site of another strike on a building in an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City.

Israel denies ‘direct attack’ on Red Cross

Saturday’s strikes came one day after at least 25 people were killed and another 50 injured in what Gaza authorities labeled an Israeli attack on a tent camp in Muwasi, near an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facility.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday there had been “no direct attack carried out by the IDF against a Red Cross facility,” but added that it would continue to investigate the incident and that “findings will be presented to our international partners.”

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, called for an “independent investigation” into the incident.

Tens of thousands protest in Tel Aviv

The latest attacks on Gaza come as dissatisfaction with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rises in Israel.

Late on Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Tel Aviv, with chants demanding new elections and the return of hostages held in Gaza. Many protesters held signs reading “Stop the War.”

The current conflict in Gaza erupted after the Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel on October 7, that resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 people.

Hamas and associated groups also took some 250 people hostages in the attack, many of whom remain in Gaza.

Over 37,551 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

js,lo/fb,rm (AP, dpa, Reuters)