CAIRO: The bodies of 79 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said Saturday - a toll that doesn't include hospitals in the battered north that it said are now inaccessible.
The dead over the past day in Israel's renewed military offensive included nine of a doctor's 10 children, horrified colleagues and the ministry said. Alaa Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her house on fire, said Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital's pediatric department.
Najjar's husband was severely wounded, and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after Friday's strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Farra said.
The dead children ranged in age from seven months to 12 years old. Khalil Al-Dokran, a spokesperson for Gaza's health ministry, told the AP that two of the children remained under the rubble.
There was no immediate comment by Israel's military on the strike. Earlier Saturday, a statement said Israel's air force struck over 100 targets in Gaza over the past day. The new deaths brought the war's toll to 53,901 since the Hamas-led attack on Oct 7, 2023, that sparked the 19 months of fighting.