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BUREIJ REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip: Crowded Gaza hospitals have struggled to treat wounded children as Israel encircled Gaza City amid relentless bombardments.
More than 3,700 Palestinian children and minors have been killed in just under a month of fighting, and bombings have driven more than half the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes, while food, water and fuel run low.
As Israeli troops encircle Gaza City and press ahead with a ground offensive, the death toll is expected to grow.
More than 9,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since then, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. It is the fifth and by far deadliest war between the two enemies.
It was not immediately clear why Israel targeted Bureij, which is located in central Gaza in an area where Israel has urged people to go to stay safe from heavy fighting further north.
The army said that airstrikes across Gaza had targeted Hamas military command centers hidden in civilian areas. But its statement did not mention Bureij specifically. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
The Bureij strikes Thursday killed at least 15, Gaza’s Civil Defense said. It said dozens of others were believed to be buried in the rubble.
Paramedics and first-responders have struggled to evacuate the injured and the dead due to crippled infrastructure and fuel shortages. Instead, casualties flow into hospitals in the arms of relatives, neighbors or anyone able to transport the wounded.
In Bureij, which is home to an estimated 46,000 people, Palestinians hacked at the rubble, searching for survivors. A young girl found under the deluge was carried into the emergency room. With her foot bloody and her face covered in ash, she insisted to medics she was fine.