Israel targeting refugee camps? 11, including children, dead in airstrike on Al-Maghazi refugee camp

An Israeli airstrike at a refugee camp in central Gaza on Tuesday (Apr 16) claimed the lives of 11 Palestinians, including children.

The airstrike, as per Palestinian health officials and Hamas media, hit the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.

Horror stories emerge from Al-Maghazi refugee camp

Crying over the body of her son Mohammad, Wafaa Issa Al-Nouri, whose husband was also killed in the airstrike, said: "My brothers were sitting by the door, my brother was wounded, and his cousin too, and I lost my son, I do not have a house, nor a husband, nor anything anymore".

"He was playing by the door. We didn't do anything. I swear we didn't do anything," she said sobbing.

In another refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, the Al-Nusseirat camp, residents, as per Reuters, said Israeli planes bombed and destroyed four multi-storey residential buildings the same day.

Rafah trembles in fear

This comes, as on Tuesday (Apr 16), Israeli tanks pushed into parts of the northern Gaza Strip. Warplanes conducted airstrikes on Rafah, the Palestinians' last refuge in the south of the territory, killing and wounding several people, reports Reuters citing medics and residents.

In Rafah, another Israeli airstrike killed four people and wounded several others, said the health authorities.

Just before midnight, an airstrike on a house in Rafah also claimed the lives of seven people, including children, and wounded many others.

The city which borders Egypt is currently sheltering over half of Gaza's 2.3 million people, who as per reports are bracing for a planned Israeli ground offensive.

Israel - Hamas peace talks

Six months into the war between Israel and militant group Hamas, there is still no sign of any breakthrough in the US-backed, Qatar- and Egypt-led talks to clinch a ceasefire deal in Gaza. This is because both Israel and Hamas continue to stick to their mutually irreconcilable conditions.

As per data from the Palestinian health ministry, since the start of the conflict on Oct 7, 2023, more than 33,000 Palestinians, including 46 in the past 24 hours, have been killed by Israeli fire.