Death toll in Khan Younis shelter blast rises to 12 — UN

A United Nations official says the death toll from a strike at a crowded shelter in Gaza has risen to 12, with over 75 wounded.

Thomas White, a senior official with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, says 15 of those wounded are in critical condition.

UNRWA claims two tank shells hit a building in a shelter housing thousands of displaced Palestinians on Wednesday in the southern city of Khan Younis, which has seen heavy fighting in recent days. The building caught fire, it said.

It does not directly blame Israel, which has “currently ruled out” that the strike was carried out by its aircraft or artillery but was still investigating. The IDF claims the building might have been hit by a Hamas rocket.

The fighting in Khan Younis has isolated its two main hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, stranding hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people inside.

White says a third hospital was evacuated overnight, and that among the patients who departed were women who had just undergone cesarean sections.