GAZA – At least 47 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured – most of them children and women – in an overnight Israeli bombardment of the city of Deir Al-Balah, the Nuseirat camp and the town of Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Nov 1.

       The war in Gaza began after the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed Israel’s southern border towns on Oct 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 Israelis and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza.

       Israel, in response, has been tearing across Gaza, reducing much of the enclave into rubble, displacing millions and leaving more than 43,000 Palestinians dead.

       Dozens were killed in Israeli military strikes across Gaza on Oct 31, mostly in the north where one attack hit a hospital.

       Israel’s military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of using Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya as a command-and-control centre, saying “dozens of terrorists” have been hiding there.

       Health officials and Hamas deny that assertion.

       The health ministry in Gaza called for all international bodies “to protect hospitals and medical staff from the brutality of the (Israeli) occupation”.

       Medical charity Doctors Without Borders said on Oct 31 one of its doctors at the hospital, Dr Mohammed Obeid, was detained on Oct 26 by Israeli forces. REUTERS