Israel intensifies strikes across Gaza on Palm Sunday
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza — A wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza on Sunday hit a hospital and other sites, killing at least 21 people as Israel vowed to expand its security presence in the small coastal strip.
Israel’s military said in a statement it had struck over 90 military targets over the past 48 hours including command and control centers, tunnels and weapons. The military also said it had intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza.
The predawn strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was the latest of several attacks on northern Gaza’s last major hospital.
Al-Ahli Hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which condemned the attack that occurred on Palm Sunday.
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and worshipers in Gaza City marked it in a church whose gilded trim and intact walls were a contrast to the widespread debris elsewhere.
Hours later Sunday, a strike on a car in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed at least seven people.
An airstrike Sunday afternoon hit a house in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least seven people, according to the Indonesian hospital.
Another strike in Deir al-Balah hit a municipal building and killed at least three people, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In Khan Younis, a strike killed at least three people, according to staff at Nasser Hospital.
The war started when Hamas-led terrorists killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during an Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and took 250 people captive. Many were eventually freed in ceasefire deals.
Israeli authorities have vowed to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 believed to be alive, and accept new ceasefire terms.
Israel’s military said a missile was launched from Yemen on Sunday afternoon and the details were under review. Sirens sounded in several parts of Israel and the occupied West Bank. There were no reports of casualties or damage.
The Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen continue to target Israel in what they have called solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
