GAZA, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least nine Palestinians were killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian sources said.
Local sources and eyewitnesses said an Israeli aircraft bombed a house on the outskirts of Maghazi camp with at least one missile.
Hussam Al-Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza, told Xinhua that nine people were killed, including children and women, and dozens of wounded people were sent to the hospital following the airstrike.
The Israeli army did not comment on the raid.
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a press statement on Saturday that Israeli forces began operating at night against "terrorist targets in the Beit Hanoun area in light of prior intelligence information about the presence of a number of terrorists and terrorist facilities in the area."
Before the forces entered, Israeli fighter jets, in cooperation with artillery fire, attacked "several terrorist targets in the area, including terrorist gathering points and other terrorist facilities belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization," according to the statement.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in Gaza to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in the enclave has risen to 45,484, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday. ■
