Israel continues to pound targets across Gaza, martyred Palestinians' toll at 24,100
GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces bombarded targets in the south, north and centre of the Gaza Strip on Monday ahead of an expected announcement by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on the fate of three Israeli hostages shown in a video clip at the weekend.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 24,100 people have been martyred in the territory in more than three months of war between Palestinian militants and Israel. A ministry statement said the toll includes 132 fatalities over the past 24 hours, while scores remain trapped under the rubble and 60,834 people have been wounded since October 7.
Twelve Palestinians were killed and others wounded in an Israeli airstrike overnight on a house in Gaza City in the north, health officials said, while plumes of smoke rose above the main southern city of Khan Younis shelled by Israeli tanks.
Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Press Agency SAFA reported fierce clashes between Hamas militants and Israeli forces in Khan Younis, while Israeli tank barrages were also reported near the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza.
In Al-Nusseirat refugee camp, local journalist Doaa El-Baz showed footage of what had once been the street where she lived. "This whole neighbourhood is destroyed. Not a single house has been spared," she said, standing before mounds of rubble. "They killed all our dreams here. The house where I grew up and spent all my childhood," Baz said, her voice trembling.
Communications across the narrow coastal enclave remained severed for a fourth consecutive day, residents said. In a statement, the Israeli military said it had killed two Palestinian fighters in an airstrike on their vehicle as it was transporting weapons in Khan Younis, and also raided a Hamas command centre in that city and struck two arms caches.
The three hostages are among some 240 seized by Hamas militants during a surprise cross-border rampage into southern Israel on Oct. 7. That Hamas assault, in which Israel says more than 1,200 people were killed, prompted an aerial and ground blitz by Israeli forces that over 100 days since has turned much of Gaza into a wasteland.
Still, almost two million displaced people are sheltering in tents and other temporary accommodation amidst fighting in the south, with the tiny territory menaced by starvation and disease due to chronic shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
HOSTAGES
Hamas aired video on Sunday showing three Israeli hostages it is holding in Gaza and urged the Israeli government to halt its aerial and ground offensive and bring about their release.
The undated 37-second video of Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, ended with the caption: "Tomorrow (Monday) we will inform you of their fate."
Around half of the 240 hostages taken by Hamas in its Oct. 7 incursion into southern Israel were released during a short-lived November truce, but Israel says 132 remain in Gaza and that 25 have died in captivity.
