Numerous casualties in Israeli escalation of attacks in Gaza Strip | News on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Health Ministry reports that “a large number” of dead and injured people have been hospitalized as a result of the continuous Israeli bombardment.

The Israeli military is carrying out heavy air, land and sea attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, causing many casualties and spreading fear and terror among the war-weary, displaced population.

Dozens of airstrikes hit the besieged area on Saturday, particularly Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, residential areas west of the city of Rafah in the south and several areas in Gaza City in the north.

The Gaza Health Ministry said that “a large number” of dead and injured were arriving at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, most of them children and women.

“Dozens of injured people are lying on the ground and medical teams are trying to save them with the basic medical resources available to them,” it said. There is also a shortage of medicine and food, and the main generator has stopped working due to a lack of fuel.

A health official in the Gaza Strip told Reuters that at least 50 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli attacks in central Gaza.

The heavy bombardment has affected communications, but Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, speaking by phone from the “overwhelmed” hospital, said the situation was tense, with frightened people on the streets not knowing where to turn.

“There are explosions every minute. Ambulances are taking the injured to the hospital where we are trapped. The hospital is in chaos. There are children among the injured,” she said.

Mohammed el-Moughir, a doctor and head of supplies and equipment for the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza, confirmed to Al Jazeera that dozens of killed or injured Palestinians had been admitted to the hospital in Deir el-Balah.

In a brief statement, the Israeli military said its forces had “targeted terrorist infrastructure in the Nuseirat area.” It later announced that its forces had rescued four prisoners during the operation in Nuseirat. The four, who were brought to Gaza after the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, are in “good health,” the military said.

The government media office in the Gaza Strip said in a statement that the Israeli army had launched an “unprecedented brutal attack” on the Nuseirat refugee camp, “leaving dozens of martyrs and injured on the streets” and was “continuing its aggression against all areas of the central governorate.”

Also in central Gaza, at least six Palestinians from one family were killed by Israeli forces after they shelled their home in the Bureij refugee camp that morning.

Dozens of air strikes targeted the southern areas of Gaza City. Eyewitnesses reported that entire residential blocks were wiped out. At the same time, attack helicopters bombed the area near the fishing port.

The Israeli military is intensifying its deadly campaign in the Gaza Strip after an attack on Thursday killed about 40 people seeking refuge in a United Nations-run school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which has sheltered about 6,000 displaced Palestinians.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a condemning statement that the “school converted into a shelter” was attacked without any warning and that those responsible must be held accountable.

Hamas accused the Israeli military of spreading “false information” about the 17 people and said that at least several of those allegedly killed were still alive.