Israeli strikes kill 40 Palestinians

Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday killed at least 40 people, including several children, an Al Jazeera TV cameraman and three rescuers.

Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera said its cameraman Ahmed al-Louh was killed “in an Israeli bombardment” that targeted Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Civil defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal confirmed Louh was killed in the strike that “targeted the Civil Defense site” in Nuseirat camp, also killing three members of the rescue agency.

The Israeli military confirmed in a statement it killed Louh, saying he was an Islamic Jihad member and “previously served as a platoon commander” for the militant group which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza.

The military said the civil defense site was being used as a “command and control center” by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israel’s military has repeatedly accused Al Jazeera journalists of links to Hamas or its ally Islamic Jihad.

Al Jazeera has fiercely denied the accusations and said Israel — which has passed a law to ban the network — has systematically targeted its employees in Gaza.

Louh is the fifth Al Jazeera journalist to be killed since the war in Gaza began, and the network’s office in the territory has been bombed.

Later on Sunday, Bassal told AFP that an Israeli strike on a school used as shelter by displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza’s main city killed at least 12 people, including a number of children.

“One missile hit the third floor of the school” in Khan Yunis, also injuring 35 people, Bassal said.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

Another strike on a house in Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, killed six people, according to the civil defense spokesman.

Bassal earlier told AFP that rescuers working through the night recovered the bodies of 18 people, including three children.

He also reported more dead in a strike on a house in central Gaza City and another tent sheltering dozens of displaced people in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.