Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills 80, destroys cancer hospital

Gaza: Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed at least 80 Palestinians and injured dozens more, according to Palestinian medical officials.

The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported that 54 people, including women and children, were killed in strikes in the southern city, according to a press statement on Thursday.

According to Gaza-based health authorities, the Gaza European Hospital, the only hospital providing medical follow-up care to cancer patients in the enclave, was out of service due to recent Israeli attacks, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Israeli attacks "caused significant damage to infrastructure, such as sewage lines, damage to internal departments, and destruction of roads leading to the hospital," the authorities said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, medical sources told Xinhua news agency that 26 others were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City and other areas in northern Gaza.

The airstrikes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that the Israeli military would enter Gaza "with full force" in the coming days to press forward with efforts to defeat Hamas.

Israel resumed large-scale military operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

Since then, 2,876 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,800 injured, according to health officials in Gaza.

The total Palestinian death toll since the war erupted on October 7, 2023, has reached 53,010, the officials said on Thursday.

Israel is using a policy of "reducing space and emptying populated areas to pressure citizens," Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defence in Gaza, told Xinhua on Thursday.

He also claimed that thousands of people spent the night in the streets amid threats of strikes on schools and shelters housing the displaced, adding that Israeli forces were obstructing emergency teams from reaching victims and systematically destroying Civil Defence infrastructure.

Since October 2023, the Israeli Army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 53,000 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children.

A US-backed humanitarian organisation will start work in Gaza by the end of May under an aid distribution plan but has asked Israel to let the United Nations and others resume deliveries to Palestinians now until it is set up.

No humanitarian assistance has been delivered to Gaza since March 2, and a global hunger monitor has warned that half a million people face starvation in Gaza.

With inputs from IANS