At least three people were killed and 40 others were injured early this morning in an Israeli shelling of displaced people's tents at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, according to the Hamas government in the enclave.
The shelling hit the displaced people's tents inside the hospital, located in the city of Deir al-Balah. It is the seventh time Israel has attacked the facility, Gaza authorities said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed in a statement that it launched a "targeted strike against terrorists" operating a command center inside the hospital.
The hospital was "used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against the IDF and the State of Israel," the statement read, a phrase repeated by Israeli forces whenever they attack civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
The attack came shortly after an Israeli bombing of the Mufti school, which also houses displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killed more than 20 people and injured dozens, according to Palestinian media.
Hamas called the attack a "horrific massacre" and said Israel would not have dared to continue the war in Gaza or expand it into southern Lebanon if it were not for US support and "international silence."
The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip announced on Sunday that more than 300 people had been killed in the northern enclave in attacks since Israel launched a new ground offensive in the area on October 6.
Since the start of the war in Gaza a year ago, more than 42,200 people have been killed and 98,400 injured in the Palestinian enclave, according to the latest figures from the Gaza Health Ministry.
