ANKARA: At least three Palestinians were killed and over 18 others injured on Sunday in an Israeli attack targeting displaced persons’ tents in a hospital in the central Gaza Strip, the government media office said, Anadolu Agency reported.

“The Israeli occupation forces committed a massacre within the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital by bombing several tents housing displaced persons,” the media office said in a statement on the attack on Deir al-Balah.

“This brutal attack resulted in the martyrdom of three individuals and more than 18 injuries so far, including serious injuries currently being treated by the medical teams at the hospital,” it added.

The media office condemned “in the strongest terms this new massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation forces.”

It urged “the international community and international and United Nations (UN) organisations to pressure the Israeli occupation to stop the genocide and the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

More than 39,500 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,300 injured since Israeli attacks on Gaza began on October 7, according to local health authorities.

Almost 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6. - Bernama, Anadolu