Gaza civil defense says Israeli forces kill at least 12 Palestinians
Israel has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, where the war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the Palestinian territory's population of more than two million.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that six people were killed and 15 injured in an Israeli air strike that hit the Al-Rimal clinic, 'which houses hundreds of displaced people, in the Al-Rimal neighborhood west of Gaza City.'
AFP footage showed Palestinians, including groups of young children, combing through the bombed-out interior of the clinic, where mattresses lay alongside wood, metal and concrete broken apart in the blast.
'We were surprised by missiles and explosions inside the building,' eyewitness Salman Qudum told AFP.
'We did not know where to go because of the dust and destruction.'
In the south of the territory, Bassal said two people were killed and 20 others injured by Israeli forces' gunfire while waiting for aid near a distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
A US- and Israel-backed group, the GHF took the lead in food distribution in the territory in late May, but its operations have had a chaotic rollout with repeated reports of aid seekers killed near its facilities.
Hundreds reported killed
The UN human rights office said last week that more than 500 people have been killed waiting to access food from GHF distribution points.
The health ministry in Gaza on Sunday placed that toll higher, at 751 killed.
In Khan Younis in the south, Bassal reported two people killed in an air strike on a house and another killed by Israeli gunfire.
An air strike on a house in Gaza City killed one and injured several others, he added.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
In a separate statement, it said it had struck 'dozens of terrorists, weapons depots, observation posts, military buildings, and other terror infrastructures' over the past 24 hours.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency.
Israel has killed more than 57,418 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
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