By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) - Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 53 Palestinians, including a journalist and rescue workers, medics said, and the Israeli military said its air and ground forces in the north of the enclave killed dozens of militants and captured others.
An airstrike hit the civil emergency centre in the Nuseirat market area in the central Gaza Strip, killing Ahmed Al-Louh, a video journalist for Al Jazeera TV, and five other people, medics and fellow journalists said. Another strike on a house in Nuseirat camp killed five people, including children, according to medics.
The TV network said Al-Louh was working when he was killed and condemned Israel.
The Israeli military said the strike had targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants operating from Gaza's Civil Defence's Nuseirat office. It named Al-Louh as a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad, without providing evidence.
Al Jazeera did not immediately comment on the Israeli allegation but has condemned previous claims by Israel naming some of the Qatari-owned network's journalists killed in the Gaza war as members of militant groups.
Hamas media said the head of the civil emergency service in Nuseirat, Nedal Abu Hjayyer, was also killed.
"The civil emergency headquarters in Nuseirat camp was hit during the crews' presence, they work around the clock to serve the people," said Zaki Emadeldeen from the civil emergency service to reporters at the hospital.
Another airstrike hit a group of Hamas-linked men tasked with protecting aid trucks west of Gaza City, and medics said several were hurt but exact figures were unavailable.
At least 11 people were killed in three Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City houses, nine were killed in the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia camp when clusters of houses were bombed or set ablaze, and two were killed in Rafah, medics and residents said.
The Israeli military said the three Gaza City houses belonged to militants planning imminent attacks. It said steps were taken to reduce risk to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.
The military issued a photo showing the weapons it seized in Beit Lahiya that included explosives and dozens of grenades.
In southern Gaza's Khan Younis, medics said that at least 20 people, including women and children, were killed when an airstrike hit a shelter housing displaced families.
In Beit Hanoun, residents said Israeli forces besieged families sheltering in Khalil Aweida school before storming it and ordering them to head towards Gaza City.
Medics said several people were killed and wounded during the raid while the army detained many men.
The military said it struck dozens of militants from the air and on the ground and captured others in Beit Hanoun.
Reuters was unable to confirm whether any of the people killed were fighters. Hamas does not disclose its casualties, and the Palestinian health ministry does not distinguish in its death toll between combatants and non-combatants.
Israel says Gaza's militants regularly embed among civilians, using them as human shields. Hamas denies this.
HOSTAGES
Separately, Israel said aircraft struck a command and control centre in a compound in the Abu Shabak clinic in northern Gaza used by Hamas to store weapons and plan attacks. The Gaza health ministry said the medical center was destroyed.
Palestinians accuse Israel of carrying out ethnic cleansing to depopulate Gaza's northern edge to create a buffer zone. Israel denies this and says the campaign targets Hamas militants. The military says it has instructed civilians to evacuate battle zones for their own safety.
The war began when the Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel then launched an air and land offensive that has killed almost 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The campaign has displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.
A bid by Egypt, Qatar and the United States to reach a truce, which would also include a hostage deal, has gained momentum in recent weeks, yet there has been no news of a breakthrough.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had spoken with U.S. President-elect Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20, about efforts to secure a hostage release.
"We discussed the need to complete Israel's victory and we spoke at length about the efforts we are making to free our hostages," Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Howard Goller and Diane Craft)
