At least 93 killed in Israeli attacks in central Gaza, health official says

Bodies of at least 93 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks on Al-Nuseirat and other areas in central Gaza, and dozens wounded, in the attacks, arrived on Saturday at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the health ministry in the enclave said.

The hospital, one of the only hospitals still functioning in Gaza, has been currently operating via one power generator and could go out of service while dozens of injured were still on the streets, a spokesperson from the health ministry said in front of the hospital.

Israeli forces rescued four hostages alive in a special operation from two separate locations in the central Gaza area of al-Nuseirat on Saturday, the military said.

The hostages were kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ deadly raid on Israeli towns and villages near Gaza on Oct. 7, an attack which precipitated the devastating war in the besieged Hamas-run enclave.

Hamas’s raid killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and Israel’s subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza has killed at least 36,801 Palestinians, according to an updated tally by the enclave’s health ministry on Saturday.

Palestinian militants took around 250 hostages back to Gaza on Oct. 7. There are 116 now left in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies, including at least 40 whom Israeli authorities have declared dead.

The Israeli military had said earlier on Saturday it was targeting militant infrastructure in al-Nuseirat, an unusual announcement because it does not normally report on its operations while they are still underway.

Al-Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp, has been subjected to heavy Israeli bombing during the war and there also has been fierce ground fighting in its eastern areas.

Local residents said al-Nuseirat had come under heavy Israeli drone and airstrikes, and that those who were killed included women and children.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the rescue operation was carried out under fire in the heart of a residential neighborhood where he said Hamas had been hiding captives among Gaza civilians under armed guard of militants.

In a televised news conference, Hagari said one Israeli soldier had been badly wounded. The Israeli forces returned fire, Hagari he said, including with airstrikes.

The Gaza war shows no signs of slowing even as Israel’s chief ally the United States presses for a ceasefire and a deal that would free the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for releases of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

The war has destabilized the wider Middle East, drawing in Hamas’s main backer Iran and its heavily armed Lebanese ally Hezbollah, which Israeli officials are threatening to go to war with on Israel’s northern border.