Broadcaster Al Jazeera has reported that medical sources told 15 had been left dead with five killed in an attack on the Shujayea neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.
Elsewhere, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the al-Awda Hospital – the last functioning in north Gaza – has been overwhelmed with patients.
Al-Awda Hospital, the last functioning hospital in North #Gaza, is overwhelmed with patients and critically low on fuel and essential medical supplies. @WHO has been working to access the hospital to resupply it and assess the situation at the non-functional Kamal Adwan… pic.twitter.com/cQL7Ct9SlB
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) January 10, 2025
A statement on Twitter/X from the WHO said: “Al-Awda Hospital, the last functioning hospital in North Gaza, is overwhelmed with patients and critically low on fuel and essential medical supplies.
“WHO has been working to access the hospital to resupply it and assess the situation at the non-functional Kamal Adwan Hospital.
“However, damaged roads and insufficient facilitation have made safe access impossible.
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“We urgently call for immediate action to make roads passable and to facilitate access to sustain Al-Awda Hospital and keep it operational.”
The death toll from the Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has now climbed above 46,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry said 46,006 Palestinians had been killed and 109,378 wounded in the ongoing 15-month conflict.
Women and children made up more than half of the fatalities, the ministry has said, but it does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians.
The Israeli military said it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in residential areas.
Israel has also repeatedly struck what it says are militants hiding in shelters and hospitals, often killing women and children.
The bombardment has flattened large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its 2.3 million people, with many forced to flee multiple times.
Hundreds of thousands of people are packed into sprawling tent camps along the coast with limited access to food and other essentials.
In recent weeks, Israel and Hamas have appeared to inch closer to an agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said this week that a deal was “very close” and he hoped to complete it before handing over American diplomacy to the incoming Donald Trump (below) administration.
But he and other US officials have expressed similar optimism on several occasions over the past year, only to see the indirect talks stall.
“What we are living is not a life. Nobody could bear the situation we’re experiencing for a single day,” Munawar al-Bik, a displaced woman, told The Associated Press this week.
“We wake up at night to the sounds of men crying, because of the bad situation,” she said.
“The situation is unbearable. We have no energy left: we want it to end today.”
Al-Bik spoke on a dusty road in the southern city of Khan Younis next to a destroyed building. Behind her, a sea of makeshift tents filled with displaced families stretched into the distance.
On Thursday, dozens of people took part in funeral prayers outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah for people killed in Israeli strikes the day before.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes killed at least nine people in Gaza on Wednesday, including three infants — among them a one-week-old — and two women.