By Hamdi Yildiz
GAZA, Palestine (AA) – Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes in the blockaded Gaza Strip, local sources said early Saturday.
Sources in Gaza said the air force hit the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza and the Deir al-Balah region.
A Palestinian child was injured and a young man was injured with shrapnel, according to Palestinian WAFA News Agency.
A children’s hospital, a residential area and a rehabilitation center for the disabled in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, were damaged in the attacks, according to witnesses Anadolu Agency interviewed.
After alleged rocket fire from the coastal enclave, the Israeli military reacted with intensive air and artillery strikes, in the central and southern Strip, damaging a number of civilian targets, including homes, a mosque, and the Mohammad Durra Pediatrics Hospital, causing material damage.
WAFA correspondent stated that five missiles were launches towards the Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City, causing glass and shrapnel injuries. The casualties were brought to Shifa hospital in Gaza City, their injuries being described as ‘light’.
Fires were reported at the sites of missile impact, and electricity was cut off due to damage to power lines.
In a statement, the Israeli army said “the Iron Dome system intercepted two missiles fired from Gaza towards the coastal city of Ashkelon,” reported the Jerusalem (Quds) Press.
The Israeli army said on Twitter that it hit Hamas targets, including a rocket manufacturing site, underground infrastructure and a military post.
The strikes came after Israel said Friday two rockets launched from Gaza were intercepted by the “Iron Dome” air defense system.
Gazan authorities have yet to issue a statement about the airstrikes.
Meanwhile, according to WAFA news agency, a pregnant woman and a paramedic were injured early Sunday morning as Israeli occupation forces raided the courtyards of the Palestine Medical Complex in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to medical sources and witnesses.
Israeli soldiers broke into the courtyards of the Complex, fired teargas canisters and rubber-coated rounds randomly at medical staff and patients, injuring a pregnant woman by a rubber-coated round in her shoulder and a paramedic in his arm.
Others sustained suffocation from gas inhalation, while some patients were terrified as a result of the assault. An ambulance also sustained partial damage from the Israeli firing.
*Writing by Sena Guler
Additional report by WAFA news agency
[Photo: A Palestinian man inspects debris at Al-Vedud Mosque after Israeli fighter jets attacked Gaza City, Gaza on December 26, 2020. Photographer: Mustafa Hassona/AA]
