Palestinian boys walk amid the debris of a damaged building belonging to the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which was sheltering displaced people in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on Thursday, a day after it was targeted by Israeli army on Wednesday — AFP GAZA, Nov 20 (AFP): Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed 27 people Wednesday, officials in the Strip said, with Israel and Hamas each accusing the other of violating the fragile ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The strikes were among the deadliest in Gaza since the truce entered into force last month, and came as Israel also announced a string of attacks targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon in spite of a nearly year-long ceasefire there.
Fourteen people were killed Wednesday in Gaza City in the north and 13 in the Khan Yunis area in the south, according to the territory's civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority. Two hospitals contacted by AFP gave the same toll.
The Israeli military said it was striking Hamas after militants opened fire towards an area where troops were operating in the south in "violation of the ceasefire agreement".
Hamas denied the accusation and denounced the attacks as a "dangerous escalation" that could jeopardise the truce, which has largely held since October 10 despite flare-ups.
Ahraf Abu Sultan, 50, told AFP he had returned to his home in Gaza City with his family on Sunday, after being displaced in the south for a year.
"We barely managed to repair one room in our destroyed house to try and settle down just two days ago, and the bombing and death has started again. They don't even give us a chance to breathe," he said.
Fellow Gaza City resident Nivine Ahmed said she had been chatting with a neighbour when Israel's bombings "turned everything upside down in a second".
"We heard the sound of explosions and saw the smoke rising. People were running and the ambulance sirens were wailing, carrying away the martyrs," she said. "Next time the missile could fall on us."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday that it aims to vaccinate more than 40,000 children against various diseases in Gaza, as it takes advantage of the recent ceasefire.
The WHO and its partners already vaccinated over 10,000 children under the age of three in the first eight days of an initial phase of the campaign launched on November 9.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said phase one of the programme has been extended until Saturday and hopes to protect children against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, polio, rotavirus and pneumonia.
Phases two and three of the campaign, which is being conducted in collaboration with UNICEF, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the health ministry in Gaza under Hamas control, are planned for December and January.
The WHO chief said he was "encouraged to see that the ceasefire continues to hold, as it allows the WHO and its partners to intensify essential health services across Gaza and support the necessary re-equipment and reconstruction of its devastated health system".
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