At least 20 people killed in Israeli shelling close to Al Amal Hospital in Gaza

Israel has stepped up its bombardment of several refugee camps in central Gaza

Wounded Palestinians waiting to be treated at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city. Photo: World Health Organisation

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At least 20 people have been killed, and many others wounded, during Israeli shelling outside the Palestinian Red Crescent-run Al Amal Hospital in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said.

A video published by the Palestinian Red Crescent showed bodies lying on the ground as paramedics and civilians rushed to transport them on stretchers.

It was not immediately clear exactly how many have been killed and injured. The hospital's roof had sustained damage on Tuesday during nearby shelling.

At least 14,000 displaced people are sheltering in the Al Amal Hospital and the adjacent Palestinian Red Crescent headquarters, the PRCS said.

Earlier in the day, dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on central Gaza's Bureij and Al Maghazi refugee camps, witnesses told local Palestinian news outlets and state news agency Wafa.

Bodies were left lying on the ground as civil defence personnel and ambulances had been unable to reach them, Wafa reported.

Israel stepped up its assault on the refugee camps of central Gaza on the 82nd day of the war.

The death toll has risen to 21,110 people, with 55,243 injured since the war began on October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

It said 195 people were killed and 325 others were injured in strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Israeli forces carried out more strikes on the Hazouqi family home in Al Nuseirat camp near Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, reports said.

The exact number of people killed was unknown as health and emergency personnel assessed damage, but Wafa said dozens of bodies arrived at Al Aqsa Martyrs and Al Awda hospitals.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said, bringing the Israeli death toll in the continuing ground operation in the strip to 164.

Northern Gaza has become devoid of medical service centres other than a Palestinian Red Crescent-run health post in Jabalia, which has been under bombardment for weeks.

Jabalia has been without communications since Tuesday alongside frequent telephone and internet blackouts. The medical post is staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses treating minor and mild injuries although they have also helped deliver babies, despite the overcrowding in the complex.

“They receive 250 people a day on average and help in preparing bodies for burial – around 80 bodies a day,” Palestinian Red Crescent spokeswoman Nibal Farsakh told The National.

The makeshift complex was also vital even when there were functioning hospitals in the north because despite working, they were under Israeli siege and were unable to receive patients, she said.

“The work they are doing is heroic,” Ms Farsakh said.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians in a raid on Nur Al Shams camp in the Palestinian city of Tulkarem at dawn on Wednesday, Wafa said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the bodies of the six people and one injured Palestinian arrived at Thabet Thabet Hospital on Wednesday.