Palestinians trapped in Gaza find nowhere is safe during Israel's relentless bombing

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes pounded locations across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including parts of the south that Israel had declared as safe zones, heightening fears among more than two million Palestinians trapped in the territory that nowhere was safe.

In the nearly two weeks since a devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel, the Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in response. Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north and head to what it called "safe zones" in the south, strikes continued across the territory overnight and Palestinian militants continued firing rockets into Israel.

A residential building in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had sought shelter, was among the places hit. Medical personnel at Nasser Hospital said they received at least 12 dead and 40 wounded.

The bombardments came after Israel agreed Wednesday to allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to Gaza, the first crack in a punishing 11-day siege. Many of Gaza's residents were down to one meal a day and drinking dirty water.

The announcement of a plan to bring water, food and other supplies into Gaza came as fury over a Tuesday night explosion at Gaza City's al-Ahli Hospital spread across the Middle East. There were conflicting claims of who was behind the blast, which health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said had killed hundreds of Palestinians.

Hamas officials in Gaza blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was caused by a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group operating in Gaza. Islamic Jihad dismissed the Israeli claim.
The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence.

US President Joe Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday, said data from his Defense Department showed the explosion was not likely caused by an Israeli airstrike. The White House later said an analysis of "overhead imagery, intercepts and open-source information" showed Israel was not behind the attack. But the US continues to collect evidence.

Video from the scene showed the hospital grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children. Hundreds of wounded were rushed to Gaza City's main hospital, where doctors already facing critical supply shortages were sometimes forced to perform surgery on the floors, without anaesthesia.

More than one million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza's population, have fled their homes in Gaza City and other places in the northern part of the territory since Israel told them to evacuate. Most have crowded into U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters or the homes of relatives.

Following airstrikes early Thursday, sirens wailed as emergency crews rushed to rescue survivors from a building in Khan Younis, where many residents were believed trapped under misshapen bed frames, broken furniture and cement chunks.

A small, soot-covered child, unconscious and dangling in the arms of a rescue worker, was taken out of a damaged building and rushed toward a waiting ambulance.

Gaza's Hamas-led government said several bakeries in the territory were hit in the overnight strikes, making it even harder for residents to get food.

The Israeli military said it killed a top Palestinian militant in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, and hit hundreds of targets across Gaza, including militant tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructure and command centre's. It said it also hit dozens of mortar-launching posts, most of them immediately after they launched shells at Israel. Palestinians have launched barrages of rockets at Israel since the fighting began.

Israel has said it is attacking Hamas militants wherever they may be in Gaza, and accused the group's leaders and fighters of taking shelter among the civilian population, leaving Palestinians feeling in constant danger.

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