Scores Killed in Central Gaza After Israeli Strikes, Hospital Officials Say

Injured Palestinians at Al Awda hospital in central Gaza on Saturday.Credit…Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock

The Israeli operation to rescue four hostages in the town of Nuseirat in central Gaza on Saturday unleashed a heavy aerial bombardment and ground operations that killed more than 200 people, according to two hospital officials in the area.

Residents there said it was the heaviest onslaught they could recall during the eight-month-old war. One hospital official said Israel struck a busy market, and video footage from the immediate aftermath of the attack showed bloodied bodies on the ground in what appeared to be a market that was struck.

Other video footage showed people running for cover as a powerful airstrike exploded near them.

Dr. Khalil Daqran, the spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, and Marwan Abu Nasser, the acting administrative director of Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat, said their two hospitals had received a total of more than 200 dead and many of the wounded from the attack on Saturday. Many of those killed were women and children, the hospital officials said.

Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, estimated the number of casualties to be under 100, without specifying whether these were dead or wounded or both.

The New York Times could not independently verify the death toll and it was not clear how many were civilians and how many were Hamas militants.

Hours later some of the dead had already been buried by their families while others had yet to be claimed, according to Dr. Daqran.