The oldest mosque in Gaza, the al Omari Mosque, has been levelled in an Israeli airstrike, Palestinian officials said.
Gaza’s Interior Ministry said an Israeli aircraft targeted the mosque in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, leading to its destruction, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported.
The mosque dates from the 7th century and has been destroyed several times during war and natural disasters before it was restored in 1925.
There are no immediate reports of casualties.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli warplanes had continued airstrikes on the Gaza Strip last night, including striking a refugee camp in central Gaza called al-Bureij. The incident killed and injured several victims, it said.
In an earlier report, Wafa said Israel had also fired missiles at four residential towers in the al-Zahra area in central Gaza after ordering the occupants to leave their houses.
Meanwhile, speaking at a press briefing outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a Palestinian health ministry spokesperson said the seven main hospitals and 21 health centres in Gaza are now “out of service”.
A total of 46 medical personnel and 23 ambulances have been destroyed, Al Jazeera reported.
UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, said two more of its staff members have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total to 16.
At the same time, UN secretary-general Antonia Guterres said he is engaging with all parties to ensure trucks carrying aid to Gaza can pass the Rafah border crossing from Egypt as soon as possible.
According to CNN, around 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza were still stuck in Egypt pending diplomatic efforts to open the Rafah crossing to allow up to 20 trucks to pass in an initial delivery.
It said negotiations continued as workers repair roads damaged from Israeli bombing, while Egyptian authorities have started to remove cement blocks at the entrance to the crossing in preparation for its opening.
However, according to UN relief chief Martin Griffiths, the possible initial delivery would be far lower than usual.
“We need to build up to the 100 trucks a day that used to be the case of the aid programme going into Gaza,” Griffiths told CNN. - Mkini
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