Israeli strikes killed at least 52 people across Gaza on Thursday, October 2, the territory's civil defense agency and hospitals said, including an employee of the French charity Doctors Without Borders. The civil defense agency, a rescue force which operates under Hamas authority, said the deaths were caused "by continuous Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip since dawn," specifying that 10 people, including at least one child, were killed in Gaza City.
Several hospitals confirmed to AFP that they had received 10 bodies in Gaza City, 14 in central Gaza, and 28 in the territory's south. They reported that some were killed in air strikes, others by drone fire and shootings. Asked for comment, the Israeli army said it was looking into the matter.
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis reported nearly 30 deaths, including 14 killed by "Israeli gunfire" targeting Palestinians waiting for food distribution in the Al-Tina and Morag areas. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah said it had received nine bodies after several strikes on nearby areas. An AFP photographer saw several corpses, some wrapped in white shrouds, in the hospital morgue as relatives mourned nearby.
Among the dead was 42-year-old Omar al-Hayek, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff member. He was killed in a strike on a group of civilians in central Deir al-Balah, according to the hospital and his family.
"The attack took place on a street where our teams were waiting to take a bus to the MSF field hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza," the charity said. "All staff were wearing MSF vests, clearly identifying them as medical humanitarian workers," it said, adding that four others were also wounded, one of whom was in a serious condition. "The consequences will be tragic for their families and for our team. Enough killings – whether targeted or not, this is unacceptable," Karin Huster, head of the MSF medical team in Gaza, told AFP.
The nearly two-year war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory military campaign since then has killed 66,225 Palestinians in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.