Israel launched an offensive in Central Gaza after a deadly strike on a shelter

Hamas is not a terrorist group. Israel is a force above and below ground in Gaza, says Palestinian Medical Mission Director Amin Khattab

The few Gaza hospitals that remain in operation have often been overwhelmed by the numbers of dead and wounded, while experiencing sporadic telecommunications blackouts. The New York Times reporter was in Al Aqsa hospital on Thursday to investigate the situation after the Nuseirat strike.

He said that the designated official prepared to receive and register the dead and wounded after the news of a big strike reached the facility. “We look for any marker that would help us identify the person,” said Mr. Khattab, adding that officials often had to collect multiple body parts from an individual, placing them into a single bag.

Israeli troops also continued their offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the Israeli military has seized much of the border area between the city and Egypt. The Israeli military said it was carrying out “intelligence-based, targeted operations,” without providing further details.

The military has offered a full-throated defense of the Thursday strike, saying that its forces had targeted 20 to 30 militants using three classrooms as a base. International critics have focused on the civilian toll.

Scores of Palestinians, including women and children, were killed during the rescue operation, according to local Gaza health officials. The Israeli military said it had targeted militant who threatened its forces as they attempted to get hostages. The breakdown of the dead in the raid was not given by Israeli and Palestinian health officials.

The Israeli military stated on Friday that its operations were continuing in other areas of central Gaza, like Bureij and Deir albalah, and had killed dozens of Palestinians and destroyed their tunnels.

Despite the concern over Israel’s Thursday strike on the Nuseirat complex, the military also said it had bombarded more Hamas operatives on the grounds of a UN school compound in Shati. UNRWA, the agency for Palestinian refugees which operated the school until it was emptied in October, couldn’t provide any more information about the casualties.

“We’re seeing that Hamas still exists, and they still have capabilities above and beneath ground,” Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters on Thursday, describing ongoing attacks by “smaller cells” of militants using rocket-propelled grenades, small arms and booby traps.

The Israeli military said on Friday that the Hamas militant group attempted to launch an attack inside the country from a tunnel near the border with Egypt. The military said that three people, including an Israeli soldier, were killed by Israeli tank and drone fire.

The al aqsa hospital morgue operation: the story of the first three hostages saved in a single building, according to the hospital’s morgue official

Amid conflicting information over the death toll and the identities of the victims, Mr. Khattab, the Al Aqsa hospital morgue official, said the hospital had a system designed to document mass casualty events as accurately as possible, despite the severe challenges of the war.

The mission by the Israeli military to save four hostages was a rare operation, one that required weeks of planning and just a few minutes before starting, according to Israeli officials.

According to one of the defense officials, Israeli intelligence first learned that she was being held in an aboveground building. More information received later indicated that three other hostages were in the same section of the building, said the official.

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