AT least 12 people have been killed as Israeli strikes targeted a refugee camp in Gaza on New Year’s Day.
One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza with the health ministry saying seven people were killed, including a woman and four children, and then at least a dozen others were injured.
Another strike overnight into Wednesday in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and child, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
A third strike early on Wednesday in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital which received the bodies.
It is unclear how many people have been killed in the strikes, with news outlet Al Jazeera reporting that 17 people have died with people still missing or believed to be trapped under rubble.
The attack on the hospital comes after Daniel Meron, Israel’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, has described a damning UN human rights agency report on attacks on Gaza’s hospitals as made up.
The report read: “The destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza, and the extent of killing of patients, staff and other civilians in these attacks, is a direct consequence of the disregard of international humanitarian and human rights law.”
Writing on Twitter/X, Meron said that Israel operates in accordance with international law and accused Hamas of using Gaza hospitals for what he called “terror activity”.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using health facilities as “command centres” for military operations, and said people it has detained at hospitals were fighters.
It comes after we told how the UK Government has been urged to intervene after Dr Hussam Abu Safiya was detained following a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital.
The National also revealed in an exclusive poll how the majority of Scots want to see the UK Government end all arms exports to Israel.
Flooded 'medical tents’ at #Nasser Medical Complex after patients had to be transferred to main building. I remember #Gaza as cold & wet like this in winter - yet displaced people are trying to survive in even flimsier tents with floods, cold winds & famine! We need #PeaceNOW! pic.twitter.com/gf2hohuFKm
— Dr Philippa Whitford (@Dr_PhilippaW) January 1, 2025
Elsewhere, flooding has also hit with former SNP MP Dr Philippa Whitford, who previously worked in Gaza, sharing footage of tents at Nasser Medical Complex facing severe weather damage.
She said: “I remember Gaza as cold & wet like this in winter – yet displaced people are trying to survive even flimsier tents with floods, cold winds and famine.”
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has resulted in the deaths of more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
It says women and children make up more than half of the fatalities.
