At least 18 killed in Israeli strike on Gaza mosque

At least 18 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli air strike on a Gaza mosque, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The strike on the mosque, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, came as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave approaches its first anniversary.

Eyewitnesses said the number of casualties could rise as the mosque was being used to house displaced people.

The Israeli military said in a statement it "conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control centre embedded in a structure that previously served as the 'Shuhada al-Aqsa' Mosque in the area of Deir al Balah".

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.

It has also displaced nearly all of the enclave's 2.3 million people, caused a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.

As the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 2024 approaches, listen to 'Drivetime In-Depth, War in Gaza' - available on RTÉ.ie/radio or wherever you get your podcasts: Drivetime In-Depth: War in Gaza - RTÉ Podcasts