Several injured as Israeli tanks target vicinity of hospital in southern Gaza

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Friday that a number of Palestinians were injured as a result of attacks by Israeli tanks in the vicinity of a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a statement, the society said that Israeli tanks "target the surroundings of PRCS Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, with heavy gunfire."

"Several injuries were reported, and our teams are unable to reach them," it added.

On Thursday evening, the PRCS said that Israeli forces besieged the Al-Amal Hospital for the fourth day in a row.

The hospital was subjected to continuous bombardment, even though it is a shelter for a number of displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip, the society said.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas which Tel Aviv says killed 1,200 people.

At least 26,083 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 64,487 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza's population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.