Israel killed at least 23 people during the deadly strikes in Khan Younis.

Israeli occupation forces targeted the vicinity of the Nasser Hospital and stole corpses from a cemetery in southern Gaza on Tuesday, Quds News and citizen journalists on the ground reported.

Israel’s airstrikes intensified in southern Gaza, targeting the vicinity of the Nasser Hospital where at least 7,000 displaced Palestinians have been taking shelter, forcing them to evacuate the area.

Palestinian journalist in Gaza, Bisan Owda, said in a video on her Instagram that the attack on the Nasser Hospital is part of Israel’s plans to invade the facility. 

“Dozens of thousands [of displaced people] are just moving randomly, cannot find any place to go. They tried going to the schools around the hospital or even to the refugee camp itself to find a safe place while the carpet bombing and the bombings were ongoing,” Owda said in the video where the sound of bombing can be heard.

“We are besieged. I don’t know if I can survive this or go anywhere[…]it’s a war against hospitals,” Owda added.

Israel killed at least 23 people during the deadly strikes on Khan Younis, raising the total toll to more than 24,448, according to Palestine’s news agency (Wafa). 

The airstrikes also targeted the vicinity of the Al-Amal Hospital, “spreading a state of panic and terror among patients, wounded, medical staff, and displaced people seeking shelter,” Wafa added.

The Palestinian Red Crescent separately confirmed that Israel damaged Al-Amal Hospital’s building.

During the same night, Israeli occupation forces destroyed a cemetery in Al-Namsawi in Khan Younis and stole “several corpses” before withdrawing from the area, according to Quds News.

Thefts of Palestinian bodies have been commonly reported in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli genocide. 

Gaza’s media office confirmed on January 6 that Israeli forces stole the bodies of 150 Palestinians from the Al-Tuffah cemetery in Gaza after digging up and bulldozing 1,100 graves. 

Gaza’s authorities said the bodies were kidnapped to unknown locations, suspecting that Israeli occupation forces would steal their organs. 

Gaza’s government had revealed on December 26 that Israel returned 80 corpses, some of which had signs of organ theft and other alterations. The Israeli occupation forces had refused to disclose the sources of the bodies.

A Euro-Med report revealed on December 14 that the Israeli forces “repeatedly targeted several cemeteries in the Gaza Strip” based on field documentation. It found that the Israeli soldiers dug up graves and possibly stole the organs of several bodies.

Hospitals and medics have been among Israel’s main targets since it launched its genocidal war on Gaza, targeting more than 183 health facilities, according to Euro-Med. 

Only 15 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, including nine in the south and six in the north, according to the World Health Organization. 

The hospitals in the south are operating at three times their capacity with a significant shortage of medical supplies and electricity. Medics on the ground are forced to operate on the wounded without anaesthesia and use their mobile phone flashlights.