JERUSALEM (AP) — A drone fired from Yemen struck the southern Israeli city of Eilat on Wednesday. Medics said at least 22 people were wounded, two of them seriously. It wasn’t immediately clear if they were hurt by the drone or an interceptor.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 19 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, according to local hospitals.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have regularly fired drones and missiles at Israel — and attacked international shipping — in what they say is solidarity
with Palestinians in Gaza. The vast majority of the fire directed at Israel has been intercepted or fallen in open areas without wounding anyone.
Israel has carried out retaliatory airstrikes on Yemen after past attacks.
The Israeli military said that “interception efforts were made” and that search and rescue teams were operating in the area. The Magen David Adom rescue service said that it evacuated the wounded to a nearby hospital, and that two of them had “severe shrapnel injuries to their limbs.”
In Gaza, an Israeli strike hit a group of Palestinians in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least 12 of them, according to the Al-Awda Hospital. Another 18 people were wounded, it said. The Israeli military didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another four people — two children and their parents — were killed in a strike on their home in Nuseirat, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.
Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza said that it received the bodies of three people killed by gunfire while seeking aid. Health officials in Gaza and the U.N. human rights office say hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire while seeking humanitarian aid in recent months.
The military has said it only fires warning shots when people approach its forces in what it considers a threatening manner.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a 24-year-old was shot and killed by Israeli forces near the northern city of Jenin, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The military said they shot and killed a man after he hurled an explosive device at them.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives are still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel's ongoing retaliatory offensive has killed more than 65,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It doesn't say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Israel launched another major ground operation earlier this month in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can't afford to relocate.
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