Dozens of Palestinians have been martyred and scores wounded in an Israeli bombardment that targeted two homes in the town of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. Additionally, Israeli warplanes launched heavy bombings on Khan Younis to the south of the Strip, Deir al-Balah in the center, and the Shujaiyya neighborhood east of Gaza City.
Al Jazeera's correspondent reported that an Israeli strike targeted the Khaleh family home in Jabaliya, resulting in a preliminary toll of 11 martyrs and several missing persons.
The correspondent also reported that 24 people were martyred and dozens injured in another Israeli bombing that hit the Shehab family's house in Jabaliya as well, causing extensive damage to the adjacent houses and leading to the high number of victims. The reporter noted that there are missing persons under the rubble.
Recorded scenes captured by Al Jazeera journalists showed the arrival of dozens of injured and martyrs to a medical center in Jabaliya, including a large number of children.
Images document the crowded injured lying on the floor of the medical center's departments, which can only provide first aid due to its lack of specialty, while the rest of the hospitals in northern Gaza have gone out of service.
Khan Younis
Al Jazeera's correspondent reported that Israeli warplanes conducted two raids on Maan area southeast of Khan Younis. Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, was also subjected to intense Israeli shelling, and the occupation forces bombed the Qarara area north of Khan Younis as well.
Violent clashes erupted in Qarara and Bani Suheila towns between Palestinian resistance factions and occupation forces, during which heavy gunfire and artillery shelling were heard.
Columns of black smoke were seen rising from the sites of clashes before Israeli tanks fired flares heavily in the sky, in an attempt to reveal the positions of resistance fighters.
According to eyewitnesses for the Anadolu Agency, the clashes continued for several hours afterward, before their intensity subsided in the early morning hours of Sunday.
Deir al-Balah, Nusseirat, and Shujaiyya
Israeli aircraft also carried out airstrikes on Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip and targeted the northern area of Nusseirat camp as well with airstrikes, with no reports of injuries.
Israeli artillery stationed at the border of the Strip also bombarded the eastern areas of the Shujaiyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, throughout the evening hours on Saturday, according to local sources.
Kamal Adwan Hospital
In Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, Israeli occupation forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, following days of siege and bombing of the hospital's facilities.
A video obtained by Reuters showed two shrouded bodies, an injured boy, a destroyed car, shattered and burnt walls, and piles of abandoned belongings in the hospital.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that the Israeli forces forced hundreds of displaced people who had taken refuge in Kamal Adwan Hospital to leave, and the wounded patients and medical staff were transferred to the hospital's courtyard.
Al Jazeera obtained photos showing the occupation's bulldozers crushing the tents of the displaced and killing those inside.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai Al-Kaila, quoting witnesses, said civilians were buried under the rubble from land leveled by Israeli forces around the hospital.
The Israeli army said it completed its operations at the hospital after claiming that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was using the hospital as a "command and control center" and claimed to have found weapons hidden in medical equipment, arresting about 80 fighters before leaving the place on Saturday.
Earlier, Gaza authorities said Israel detained about 70 medical staff members during the search, with Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlout, a hospital physician wearing green scrubs, adding, "They raided the building and took all employees for interrogation, and the injured are also under investigation."
The United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Agency reported days ago that due to Israeli aggression and severe bombardment of the Gaza Strip, only 11 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are operating partially.
The military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Saraya al-Quds, said that its forces shelled Israeli military gatherings in the Beit Lahia axis with a barrage of mortar shells.
Assassination of a Woman and Her Daughter
Earlier on Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced that an Israeli soldier shot dead a woman and her daughter inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, the only Catholic church in the Strip.
The Patriarchate clarified in a statement that "In the afternoon of December 16, 2023, an Israeli army sniper assassinated two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where the majority of Christian families had taken refuge since the beginning of the war" on the Gaza Strip.
The statement added, "Naheda and her daughter Samar were shot dead while going to the nuns’ convent," without specifying their ages.
The Patriarchate continued, "Seven other people were shot while trying to help others within the convent's walls. There was no prior warning or notification. They were shot in cold blood inside the convent building where no resistance is present."
The Patriarchate confirmed that "Earlier in the day, a missile fired from an Israeli tank targeted the convent of Mother Teresa's nuns, which houses more than 54 persons with disabilities, and is inside the church's premises," destroying the fuel tank and the only power generator, while an Israeli tank fired two shells at the convent, rendering it uninhabitable.
Since October 7 of last year, the Israeli army has been waging a destructive war on Gaza, which has so far resulted in 18,800 martyrs and 51,000 injured, most of them children and women, along with enormous infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.
