Two Israeli air strikes on buildings in Gaza City have killed at least 38 people and injured many more, Hamas says.

The Israeli military said warplanes had struck Hamas military infrastructure sites and it would provide more details later.

A spokesman for Gaza's civil defence said a residential block in the al-Shati area, one of Gaza's historic refugee camps, was hit several times. The other strike targeted houses in the al-Tuffah district, the Hamas-run government media office said.

Footage showed people carrying away the wounded and searching for survivors in the wreckage as dust filled the streets.

Earlier reports put the estimated death toll at 42.

Israeli media reported that the air strikes may have been targeting a senior Hamas official.

Hussein Muhaisen, a civil defence spokesman in Gaza City, told AFP that the impact from the strikes was "like an earthquake".

"The whole area was targeted, as you see homes were destroyed. There are still families under the rubble," he said.

"Some of the injured were transferred to the Baptist Hospital, and now we are rescuing others from under the rubble, and the situation is very, very difficult due to the lack of tools and fuel for ambulances."

Meanwhile the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the EU condemned Friday's shelling of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) offices in Gaza, which the ICRC said had killed 22 people who had sought shelter around its compound.

Mr Borrell called for an independent investigation and for those responsible to be held accountable.

On Saturday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an initial inquiry into the shooting in the al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza found there was "no direct attack carried out by the IDF against a Red Cross facility".

It said the incident would be "quickly examined" and the findings presented.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people - mostly civilians - were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 37,551 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but it had reportedly identified 14,680 children, women and elderly people among the dead by the end of April.

Source: BBC 

BDST: 1205 HRS, JUNE 23, 2024
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