90 killed in Israeli strike on Jabalia refugee camp, says Gaza Health Ministry

Israeli strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed 90 Palestinians on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza told Reuters.

Hamas Aqsa radio, quoting the director of the Health Ministry, previously said dozens were wounded.

"Jabalia suffered tank, air, and naval bombardment overnight, it has been suffering a brutal war for days, people are dying in the streets and we can't get to them," a medic on the ground who declinedto give a name fearing Israeli reprisaltold Reuters by telephone.

"We believe the number of dead people under the rubble is huge, but there is no way to remove the rubble and recover them because of the intensity of Israeli fire."

The Israeli military has previouslysaid its troops in Jabalia had found weapons in a bag marked UNRWA (the name of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees) and rocket launchers near a school, and distributed a video showing explosive devices next to a bag marked UNRWA. Reuters was not able to independently verify the footage.

Fighting has intensified amid the rubble of northern Gaza, where Israel had previously claimed its military objectives against Hamas militants had been largely met.

The Israeli military said its troops had found weapons and a tunnel used by militants to attack troops in Shejaia, a suburb near Gaza City, and destroyed a weapons storage facility in the home of a Hamas operative. The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, said its fighters targeted Israeli forces in Gaza City with mortar bombs.

In central Gaza, medics inDeir al-Balah said 12 Palestinians had been killed and dozens were wounded.

In the south,Khan Younis residents reported hearing Israeli planes and tanks bombing and shelling, and the sound of rocket-propelled grenades, apparently fired by Hamas.

The Israeli military said it had killed seven "terrorists" in an air strike on Khan Younis and found rocket manufacturing parts and three tunnel shafts near a school used as a shelter. It also said it had struck the local Hamas commander's office and gained control over the central Bani Suheila Square.

Israel said it had operated against "terrorist" targets.

Israel launched its campaign to annihilate Hamas, which controls Gaza, after militants launched a surprise attack into Israelon Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and seizing some 240 hostages, according to a tally by Israeli officials. Hamas has also regularly fired rockets at Israel since then.

In response to the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli forces have besieged the Palestinian enclave and laid much of it to waste, with more than 18,000 people confirmed killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and many thousands more feared lost in the rubble or beyond the reach of ambulances. Regular communications blackouts also make tallies difficult.

The vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes over the past two months, many several times as Israel has bombarded locations where it previously told Palestinians to relocate.

Aid corridor opens

The Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened for aid trucks on Sunday for the first time since the outbreak of war, officials said, in a move to double the amount of food and medicine reaching Gazans.

But Israel accused aid officials of not distributing the deliveries. Aid agencies say their work has been disrupted by the violence.

"You cannot deliver aid under a sky full of air strikes," Juliette Touma, UNRWA's communications director, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Hungry crowds have also been stopping trucks at the Rafah crossing with Egypt and grabbing aid, the agency says. Men took boxes from one vehicle, which shed much of the rest of its load as it sped off.

Gaza's main hospital a 'bloodbath'

Al Shifa hospital in northern Gaza is providing only basic trauma stabilization, has no blood for transfusions and hardly any staff to care for a constant flow of patients, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.

After a UNvisit to deliver medicines and surgical supplies, the team described the emergency department in Gaza's main health facility as resembling a "bloodbath."

The WHO said there were hundreds of wounded patients, with new ones arriving by the minute and trauma injuries being stitched on the floor, with almost no pain management available.

Only four of 24 hospitals operating in north Gaza before the war with Israel began have even partial service, and three of those are barely functioning, the WHO said.

Israeli troops raided Al Shifa in mid-November, claiming Hamas stored weapons and ran a command centre under the facility. Israel released video purporting to showweapons and tunnels under the hospital.

The WHO said it was urgently gathering information at the Kamal Adwan hospital, where Gazan authorities said Israeli forces this week used a bulldozer to smash through the perimeter and whereIsrael has said it is being usedby Hamas fighters.

Hamas has denied using the Kamal Adwan or other hospitals for militant activities.

Reported killing at church draws Pope's criticism

Pope Francis on Sunday again suggested Israel was using "terrorism" tactics in Gaza, deploring the reported killing by the Israeli military of two Christian women who had taken refuge in a church complex.

At his weekly blessing, Francis referred to a statement about an incident on Saturday by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Catholic authority in the region.

The Patriarchate said an Israeli"sniper" killed the two women, whom the Pope named as Nahida Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar, as they walked to a convent of nuns in the compound of the Holy Family Parish. The Patriarchate statement said seven other people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others.

"I continue to receive very grave and painful news from Gaza," Francis said. "Unarmed civilians are the objects of bombings and shootings. And this happened even inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, people who are sick or disabled, nuns."

Francis said they were killed by "snipers" and also referred to the Patriarchate's statement that a convent of nuns of the order founded by Mother Teresa was damaged by Israeli tank fire.

"Some would say 'It is war. It is terrorism.' Yes, it is war. It is terrorism," he said.

WATCH | Protesters call for hostage negotiations to resume:

Israel urged to change tactics after military mistakenly kills 3 hostages

9 months ago

Duration 3:08

Israel is facing increased internal pressure to reopen negotiations for another ceasefire after the military mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages. Meanwhile the international community continues to push for more to be done to protect civilians in Gaza.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the incident was still under review and had no immediate comment on the Pope's words. The Israeli military said that church representatives had contacted it early on Saturday regarding explosions in the area but did not report any casualties in the church complex.

"The IDF only targets terrorists and terror infrastructure and does not target civilians, no matter their religion," the military said.