Sawt Falasteen - Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill 40 Palestinians

Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera said its cameraman Ahmed al-Louh was killed "in an Israeli bombardment" that targeted Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed Louh was killed in the strike that "targeted the Civil Defence site" in Nuseirat camp, also killing three members of the rescue agency.

The Israeli military confirmed in a statement it killed Louh, saying he was an Islamic Jihad member and "previously served as a platoon commander" for the militant group which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza.

The military said the civil defence site was being used as a "command and control centre" by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israel's military has repeatedly accused Al Jazeera journalists of links to Hamas or its ally Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied the accusations and said Israel -- which has passed a law to ban the network -- has systematically targeted its employees in Gaza.

Louh is the fifth Al Jazeera journalist to be killed since the war in Gaza began, and the network's office in the territory has been bombed.

Later on Sunday, Bassal told AFP that an Israeli strike on a school used as shelter by displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza's main city killed at least 12 people, including a number of children.

"One missile hit the third floor of the school" in Khan Yunis, also injuring 35 people, Bassal said.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

- Tent hit -

Another strike on a house in Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, killed six people, according to the civil defence spokesman.

Bassal earlier told AFP that rescuers working through the night recovered the bodies of 18 people, including three children.

He also reported more dead in a strike on a house in central Gaza City and another that his a tent sheltering dozens of displaced people in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

AFP images showed distraught relatives mourning the bodies of loved ones at a hospital in Gaza City. Some corpses lay on the floor covered in blankets.

On Sunday, the military confirmed it had carried out strikes in the northern Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia areas.

"The troops struck dozens of terrorists from both the air and ground and additional terrorists were apprehended" in Beit Hanoun, it said.

"In Beit Lahia, troops eliminated terrorists and located and dismantled large quantities of weapons, including explosives and dozens of grenades," Israel's military said.

The statement did not specify when these operations took place.

The military also said it targeted a clinic in northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of using it as a "command and control centre" and storage site for weapons.

- 'Collapsed' health system -

The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,976 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

The violence has displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million population, with many people forced to flee multiple times.

The Israeli military has been conducting a large-scale operation in northern Gaza for several weeks, stating that its objective is to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.

In early December, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the devastating toll of the conflict and the urgent need for international action.

"Malnutrition is rampant... Famine is imminent. Meanwhile, the health system has collapsed," Guterres said.

Medics in Gaza report severe shortages of medicines in hospitals amid the ongoing military assault.

"We are suffering from a shortage of medical staff as a result of the targeting and the martyrdom of a large number of doctors and nurses," said Hossam Abu Safiyeh, director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, in a statement o journalists.

He said Israeli air strikes and shelling continued to target the hospital and surrounding areas, exacerbating the crisis and endangering both patients and staff.

Israel's military has denied targeting the hospital directly.

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D.Khalil--SF-PST