Israeli assault on Gaza kills five children and wipes out cancer hospital [Getty]
Israel ramped up its assault on the Gaza Strip, expanding ground operations into the southern city of Rafah, after already pushing into northern and central Gaza and days of resumed airstrikes and heavy bombardment.
Hamas condemned Israel’s complete destruction of Gaza’s only cancer hospital, the Turkish Friendship Hospital in central Gaza, calling it a “sadistic act” and a clear example of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.
In a statement, Hamas accused the US administration of enabling Israel’s continuous war, claiming that Washington’s support provides Israel with the “green light” to escalate its attacks on Gaza. On the battlefield, Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, retaliated by bombing Ashkelon and Tel Aviv with a barrage of rockets in response to Israeli atrocities, the first such attacks in months.
The Israeli army launched a new wave of strikes on Lebanon in response to a rocket attack from across the border on Saturday, as Hezbollah denied responsibility for the launch.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered “a second wave of strikes against dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon”, the defence ministry said, in the largest escalation since a November 27 ceasefire.
It said the strikes were “a response to rocket fire towards Israel and a continuation of the first series of strikes carried out this morning” against southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported one girl among five killed in an Israeli strike during the day on the southern town of Touline.
The agency later said another person was killed in an Israeli strike on the key coastal city of Tyre, one of the targets of the new wave of strikes on the south and east, with multiple injuries reported.
