The death toll from the latest violence in Gaza has risen to 24, including six children, health authorities in the territory said Saturday, but Israel denied conducting a new strike that reportedly killed minors.
Gaza’s health ministry blamed “Israeli aggression” for the deaths, that also included “an elderly woman”, and for the 203 people wounded.
But an Israeli government statement denied blame for a strike in Jabalia on Saturday that reportedly killed children, insisting that a rocket fired by Gaza militants towards Israel had fallen short.
“Israeli security forces did not strike in Jabalia in the past few hours. It has been irrefutably proven that this incident was the result of the misfiring of a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad,” it said.
“We have in our possession videos that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this incident was not the result of an Israel Defence Forces strike.”
It was not immediately clear how many children were killed in the Jabalia strike. One child, a five-year-old girl, was killed in an air strike on Friday, the health ministry had said in an earlier toll.
