At least five people, including two infants, have been killed in various attacks during the night leading up to Wednesday, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza. The AP news agency's correspondent has seen four of the dead when the remains were taken care of at a morgue.
Three people were killed in an attack on a residence in the city of Dayr al-Balah. A four-month-old boy was killed in an attack on another residence in the established refugee camp Bureij. A three-week-old infant is also reported to have been killed in an attack in the city of Gaza.
Burning Tents
On Tuesday evening, at least 17 people were killed, according to information from the healthcare system in the war-torn and Hamas-controlled area. Several attacks are said to have been directed at a tent camp in the coastal area of Muwasi, which houses hundreds of thousands of fleeing Palestinians.
Five children were killed together in a tent where they had sought shelter, says Ahmed al-Farra, who is the head of the pediatric department at a large hospital in the city of Khan Yunis. The remains of the children, as well as those of three additional children and five women, were taken to his hospital after Israeli attacks on tents, vehicles, and two buildings.
Two men were also killed, as well as two unidentified individuals who were in one of the vehicles that was attacked.
A witness tells AFP that several tents in the camp caught fire after the attack and that many people were injured.
From the morgue at the hospital in Khan Yunis, AP reports that two girls sat and rested among the dead bodies that were stacked on stretchers and metal shelves.
Talks at a Lower Level
The conditions for the fleeing Palestinians in the camp have been described as particularly difficult during the recent weeks' increasingly cold winter nights.
Israel has not commented on the attacks in question, but generally maintains that all its attacks are militarily motivated and that Hamas militiamen are hiding among civilians.
More than 45,800 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the ongoing war, according to information from the Palestinian healthcare system.
Efforts to establish a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continue, according to mediating Qatar, but the talks seem to be held at a lower level between officials.
We will not stop. We will pressure them (Hamas) until they realize that they must return all hostages, said Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi when he appeared before soldiers in Jabalia on Monday.
