Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 60 Palestinians overnight, including in a school sheltering displaced families, medics said, as Israeli tanks advanced in areas of Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
Israeli tanks carried out a raid on several areas in eastern and central Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, before partially retreating, killing at least 40 and wounding dozens of others, according to the official Voice of Palestine radio and Hamas media.
In Gaza City, at least 22 Palestinians were killed, the medics said. One Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City killed 17 people, while another hit the Al-Amal Orphan Society, which also houses displaced persons, killing at least five others, the medics said.
The escalation came after Iran launched a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for Israel’s campaign against Tehran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, and Israel vowed a “painful response” against its enemy.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, locked in nearly a year of war with Israel, celebrated as they watched dozens of rockets en route to Israel. Some of those rockets fell in the Palestinian enclave, but caused no human losses, witnesses said.
Anas Al-Masry witnessed the missiles headed toward Israel Tuesday evening.
“Every day, we are being turned into [victims of] massacres and slaughters, especially in schools and in [areas] where people are displaced,” Al-Masry told CBC News.
“When we saw the rockets … one’s mind becomes a little bit more calm — that we’re striking if they strike.”
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel almost a year ago in support of its ally Hamas in the war in Gaza, which began after the latter group led the deadliest assault in Israel’s history on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 and took more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s ensuing war against the militant group has devastated Gaza, displacing most of its 2.3-million population and killing more than 41,600, according to Gaza health authorities.
