Middle East latest: Israeli strike on media tent near Gaza hospital kills reporter, wounds others
Middle East latest: Israeli strike on media tent near Gaza hospital kills reporter, wounds others
Israel struck tents outside two major hospitals in the Gaza Strip overnight, killing at least two people, including a local reporter, and wounding nine, including six reporters, Palestinian medics said.
Separate strikes killed 15 others across the Strip, according to hospitals.
The war, now in its 18th month, started when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, and taking 251 others hostage. The group still holds 59 captives — 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in the territory has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Here is the latest:
Death toll climbs across Gaza
Gaza’s Health Ministry said over the last 24 hours local hospitals have received the bodies of 57 people killed by Israeli strikes. Another 137 people have been wounded, it said.
Monday’s update brings the total Palestinian death toll from the 18-month Israel-Hamas war to 50,752, with more 115,475 wounded.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records, but says more than half the dead are women and children.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Palestinians observe general strike to protest war in Gaza
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, shops were closed on Monday and there were few cars on the streets of Ramallah where the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is headquartered.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state. The Palestinian Authority administers population centers with limited autonomy.
Macron calls for Gaza ceasefire during Egypt visit
French President Emmanuel Macron has also urged the lifting of Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid.
Macron was in Cairo on Monday to meet with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and later with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, close Western allies, who are also calling for a ceasefire.
Israel ended its truce with Hamas last month and cut off all imports of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to the territory’s 2 million Palestinians to try and pressure Hamas to accept new terms in their ceasefire agreement.
Egypt and the Gulf nation of Qatar have served as key mediators with Hamas.
Palestinian-American teen shot and killed was throwing rocks, Israeli military says
The military said Monday that soldiers killed the teen who endangered motorists on a road in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Sunday that a Palestinian-American teen was killed in the incident and two others were injured, one in critical condition.
The violence occurred near Turmus Aya, a town with a sizable population of Palestinian-Americans.
Israeli strike kills a reporter
The strike hit a media tent outside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, setting it ablaze, killing Yousef al-Faqawi, a reporter for the Palestine Today news website and another man. Six other reporters were wounded in that strike.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas militant, without providing further information.
Israel also struck tents on the edge of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.
Nasser Hospital also said it received 13 bodies, including six women and four children, from separate strikes overnight. Al-Aqsa Hospital said two people were killed and three wounded in a strike on a home in Deir al-Balah.
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This story has been corrected to show that Palestine Today is a news website, not a TV station.
By The Associated Press
