Israeli strike on hospital tent camp kills four, ignites a fire that burns dozens

Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip: An Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early on Monday killed at least four people and sent flames sweeping through a packed tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics.

The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding out among civilians. In recent months it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks.

Palestinians react to a fire after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Credit: AP

At least 10 people were also killed and at least 30 injured in Israeli airstrikes on a food distribution centre in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, with casualties including women and children, the medics said.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded people from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter nearby that killed at least 20 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents.

Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head in his arms. Another small child with a bandaged leg was given a blood transfusion on the floor of the packed hospital.

Hospital records showed that four people were killed and 40 wounded. Twenty-five people were transferred to the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza after suffering severe burns, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Israel is carrying out near-daily strikes across the Gaza Strip more than a year into the war, and has been waging a major ground assault in the north, where it says militants have regrouped.

The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, while Palestinian militants abducted about 250 hostages. About 100 are still being held inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Emergency services personnel at the scene of the drone strike in Binyamina, Israel.Credit: Getty Images

A Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others on Sunday (Monday AEDT), the Israeli military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

Hezbollah said its attack near the town of Binyamina was retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel’s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defence systems during the assault by “squadrons” of drones.

Israel’s national rescue service said the attack on the Israeli town wounded 61. With Israel’s advanced air-defence systems, it’s rare for so many people to be injured by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily in the year since the war in Gaza began, and fighting has escalated.

Israel launched its ground operation in Lebanon earlier this month with the goal of weakening Hezbollah and pushing the militant group away from the border to allow thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes.

In other developments, the US said it would send to Israel an advanced anti-missile system and about 100 American troops to operate it, in a bid to bolster the country’s air defences following missile attacks by Iran on October 1.

US President Joe Biden said he was sending the system to defend Israel.

Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) battery would augment Israel’s integrated air defence system.

“It is part of the broader adjustments the US military has made in recent months, to support the defence of Israel and protect Americans from attacks by Iran and Iranian-aligned militias,” Ryder said in a statement.

The ground-based THAAD has a power radar and is designed to defend against ballistic missiles. The US last sent one to the Middle East last year. US deployment of the system to South Korea in 2016 angered China, which believed it could peer into its airspace. The THAAD can hit targets at ranges of 150 to 200 kilometres.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned earlier that the US was putting the lives of its troops “at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel”.

“While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Araghchi posted on X.

On October 1, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel amid an escalation in fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Many were intercepted in flight, but some penetrated missile defences.

International criticism is growing after Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on UN peacekeepers since the start of the ground operation in Lebanon. The military says Hezbollah operates near the peacekeepers, without providing evidence.

A THAAD launching station is ready to be loaded onto a military transport plane in Fort Bliss, Texas.Credit: US Air Force/AP

The peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL (UN Interim Forces in Lebanon) said Israeli tanks forcibly entered the gates of one of its positions on Sunday and destroyed the main gate, and later fired smoke rounds near peacekeepers in that location, causing skin irritation.

UNIFIL said the incident was a “further flagrant violation of international law”.

Israeli strikes have wounded five peacekeepers in recent days.

Israel’s military said a tank trying to evacuate wounded soldiers backed into a UN post while under fire. It said a smoke screen was used to provide cover.

The rubble of a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Deir Billa, Lebanon. Three people were reportedly killed.Credit: Getty Images

Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani asserted that Israel has tried to maintain constant contact with UNIFIL and that any instance of UN forces being harmed will be investigated at “the highest level”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for UNIFIL to heed Israel’s warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah.

“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury,” Netanyahu said in a video addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has been banned from entering Israel. “But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone.”

Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it, and relations have plunged further since the start of the war in Gaza. Israel has accused the UN agency for Palestinian refugees of being infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the agency denies.

Israeli forces also widened their raid into northern Gaza and tanks reached the north edge of Gaza City, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and forcing many families to leave their homes, residents said.

Residents said Israeli forces had effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya in the far north of the enclave from Gaza City, blocking access between the two areas except upon permission for families willing to heed evacuation orders and leave the three towns.

Nine days into a major Israeli operation in northern Gaza, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israeli strikes had killed about 300 Palestinians there.

It said Israel’s bombardment of civilian houses and displacement shelters was intended to force residents to leave Gaza once and for all, which Israel denies.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said dozens of people have been confirmed killed in the assaults on northern areas, with many dozens of others feared dead on roads and under the rubble of houses beyond the reach of medical teams.

AP, Reuters

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