At least 52 people were killed across the Gaza Strip on Thursday in a wave of Israeli strikes, Gaza’s civil defence agency and local hospitals reported.
Among the victims was a 26-year-old staff member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), highlighting the mounting toll on humanitarian workers.
The Hamas-run civil defence agency said the casualties were the result of “continuous Israeli bombardments since dawn,” with at least 10 people — including a child — killed in Gaza City.
Hospitals confirmed receiving 10 bodies in Gaza City, 14 in central Gaza, and 28 in the south. Victims, they said, died in airstrikes, drone fire, and shootings.
In Khan Yunis, Nasser Hospital reported nearly 30 deaths, including 14 Palestinians shot dead while waiting for food distribution in Al-Tina and Morag.
Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received nine bodies after a series of strikes in nearby districts.
An AFP photographer witnessed several bodies, some wrapped in white shrouds, being mourned in the morgue of Al-Aqsa Hospital. Among them was Omar al-Hayek, an MSF employee killed in a strike on a civilian gathering in Deir al-Balah.
“We were told some of our staff had been injured and taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital,” said Karin Huster, MSF’s medical coordinator in Gaza. “When we arrived, we learned one colleague had been killed and four others wounded. This is devastating for their families and our team. Enough killings — targeted or not — this is unacceptable.”
The Israeli army said it was reviewing the reports.
The war, now nearing its two-year mark, erupted after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that left 1,219 people dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians in Gaza — also mostly civilians — according to the Hamas-run health ministry, figures the UN has deemed credible.
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