Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic images
CNN
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The Israeli strike saw 15 people, including women and children, gathered outside a health centre in the central city of Deal Al Bala in Gazan city on Thursday, according to medical staff and staff at Enclave.
AQSA Martyrs Hospital in Gaza said the eight hospitals killed on the strike are the youngest, two years old, and the oldest child at 14.
Video obtained by CNN showed several children lying motionless, while others appeared to be injured in the screams. Another video showed several children being carried to a cart, bloody, motionless, lying.
Israeli forces said they were targeting Hamas militants who took part in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“The (Israel Defence Force) is aware of reports of injured individuals in the area. The incident is under review. The IDF will regret harm to an invalid individual and will operate it to minimize the harm as much as possible,” the Israeli military said in a statement to CNN.
The Gaza Health Ministry Director General said he was hit near a medical centre that distributes children’s officials to women.
American aid organization Project Hope said the strike occurred “directly” at one of the health clinics that had been waiting to receive treatment for “malnutrition, infection, chronic illness, and more.”
The organization’s CEO, Rabih Torbay, told CNN that the clinic location was shared with the Israeli military. “It was a Decon Live site,” Torbey said.
“Project Hope’s health clinic is a place where people are refuge in Gaza, with people bringing in small children, women accessing pregnancy and postnatal care, and people receiving treatment for malnutrition,” he said in a statement.
“But this morning, the innocent family was mercilessly attacked as they stood in line waiting for the door to open,” he continued. “What is so horrifying and heartbreaking can’t properly convey how we feel anymore.”
Israel has stepped up its strike and expanded ground operations in some Gaza as Doha negotiators continue to talks to free hostages, establish a temporary ceasefire, and allow more humanitarian entry into the devastated strip.
About 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past month, according to the Enclave’s Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, Hamas continues to guerrilla-style attacks on Israeli forces, killing more than 20 soldiers in various parts of the strip over the same period, including five soldiers killed in the northern city of Beithanon this week.
A 20-year-old Israeli man was killed in an attack at the eruption Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem on Thursday, according to Israeli military health services. The IDF said the two Palestinian “terrorists” “combined shooting and stabbing attacks” before being “excluded.” Gush Etzion is a cluster of occupied West Bank settlements.
