The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Sunday an Israeli strike on a mosque-turned-shelter in central Deir al-Balah killed 26 people, while Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas militants, reports AFP.
“The number of martyrs brought to hospitals as a result of the occupation’s targeting of displaced people in the Ibn Rushd school and Al Aqsa Martyrs mosque reached 26, with several more wounded,” the health ministry said in a statement.
The Gaza civil defence agency had earlier said 21 people had been killed in the pre-dawn strike in central Gaza’s Deir El-Balah area.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control centre” at the mosque. It did not give any specific toll.
Since October 7 last year, Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,870 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry and described as reliable by the UN.
Ahead of the October 7 anniversary, thousands joined pro-Palestinian rallies in London, Paris, Cape Town and other cities.
