At least 13 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on homes in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Saturday, according to hospital officials and Gaza’s Civil Defense.

The toll came from two separate strikes in the camp, the officials said. In response to CNN’s question about the latest strikes, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: “Overnight, the IDF struck terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including terrorists and terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of Nuseirat.

“The IDF is making significant efforts to mitigate harm to uninvolved civilians and is operating in accordance with international law against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip that are systematically and cynically operating from within civilian infrastructure.”

Gaza’s Civil Defense also said a residential block was hit south of Nuseirat, with hospital officials saying they received three bodies.

“A short while ago, one tower [block] was bombed,” Mahdi Abdullah, a man from northern Gaza displaced in Nuseirat, told CNN. “The situation is difficult here, and I am waiting for things to calm down so that I can return to my place.”

The Israeli military has launched numerous deadly strikes on Nuseirat, including the targeting of multiple UN-run schools housing displaced people. The Israeli military has said its targets were Hamas compounds operating inside the schools.

Nuseirat residents described living in constant fear of being bombed and a deteriorating humanitarian situation.

“The situation is scary,” said Rahma Abu Hajjaj, a 39-year-old mother of five from Nuserirat. “There are no warnings, there are no alarms when homes are bombed, we are hiding all the time and we do not know why they are targeting these homes.”

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that 37 people have been killed and 54 injured in the past 24 hours due to ongoing Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.

The ministry said the total number of deaths since October 7 now stands at 38,919 people, with another 89,622 people injured. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants killed.

Israel launched its ground campaign in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 attacks, which killed around 1,200 people.

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Doctors in Gaza deliver unborn baby after pregnant mother killed

Heavy smoke and fire billow following following an Israeli military strike.

Rescue workers in central Gaza have saved the unborn baby of a heavily pregnant woman who was killed in an Israeli attack, Palestinian media reported on Saturday.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA said that the child had been delivered in an emergency operation at the al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat.

The newborn is now being treated at the hospital and is said to be in a stable condition, the agency reported.

Palestinian media reported that a total of eight people had been killed in the Israeli army attack on a residential building in the refugee neighbourhood in the coastal strip.

An Israeli army spokesperson said on enquiry that the army had attacked "terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip during the night, including terrorists and terror infrastructure in the Nuseirat area."

The military said it made considerable efforts to prevent harm to innocent civilians.

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Israeli PM blocks hospital for sick Gaza children in Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blocked plans for a field hospital in Israel to treat sick and injured children from Gaza, according to reports.

The site was announced earlier this week by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as a temporary measure to provide treatment while the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt remains closed to civilians.

On Thursday, the prime minister's office said he had not approved a hospital on Israeli territory and that it would not go ahead.

Since the conflict began last year, there have been numerous reports and widespread international concern about its impact on children and the number suffering serious physical injuries.

Mr Gallant said the temporary hospital would be used to address the most urgent humanitarian needs until a permanent system for the evacuation and treatment of sick children could be established.

He said it would treat those suffering with conditions including cancer, diabetes, and orthopaedic injuries.

However, on Thursday the Mr Netanyahu's office announced that he "does not approve the establishment of a hospital for Gazans within Israeli territory - therefore, it will not be established".

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AFP news agency that the defence ministry had asked the prime minister's office to help speed up the evacuation of patients from Gaza two weeks ago.

"No response was received, so the minister issued an order to the army to establish a field hospital within Israeli territory as an immediate solution for sick children," they said.

Mr Netanyahu's military secretary Major General Roman Gofman told the Ynet news site that there had not been enough progress in creating a corridor for transporting sick and injured Gazans to other countries and this was why the hospital did not go ahead.

The episode is just the latest sign of tension in the Israeli government to show in recent months.

In May, Mr Gallant, a member of Mr Netanyahu's Likud party, voiced open frustration at the government’s failure to set out plans for how Gaza would be governed after the conflict.

Last month, opposition figure Benny Gantz quit the country's war cabinet in protest at Mr Netanyahu's handling of the war.

The current conflict began following the 7 October attack, which saw around 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage.

The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 38,848 people have so far been killed and 89,459 injured in Gaza.

In April, British surgeon Dr Victoria Rose, who had been working in Gaza, told the BBC that a "huge amount" of the operations she had carried out had been on children under 16, including many under six.

She said she had treated people with bullet wounds and burns and that a lack of food available in Gaza meant patients were not strong enough to heal properly.

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Top UN court to deliver opinion on Israeli occupation policy

Israeli soldiers block a road in the West Bank. 

The highest court of the United Nations will on Friday deliver their opinion on the legality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

The opinion is not legally binding. But if the 15 highest UN judges in The Hague find that Israel is violating international law, it will add to the international political pressure on Israel.

Interest in the issue is immense: a record 52 states have submitted arguments to the court in The Hague.

In 2022, the UN General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to determine the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of the territories - long before the start of the Israel-Hamas war that erupted last October.

Israel seized control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israel left Gaza in 2005 but continues to control coastal territory's land and sea borders, as well as its airspace.

The number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, which lies between the Israeli heartland and Jordan, has meanwhile risen to around half a million. Including East Jerusalem, the figure is as high as 700,000.

This will be the court's second non-binding legal opinion on Israel's occupation policy.

Twenty years ago, in July 2004, the judges declared that the barrier built by Israel along the West Bank violated international law and should be torn down. Israel have not complied.

In 2016, the UN Security Council described West Bank settlements as a violation of international law and called on Israel to stop all settlement activities.

Israel has nevertheless pressed ahead with the expansion of settlements.

Friday's legal opinion is independent of the proceedings that South Africa brought against Israel before the court in 2023. In that case, South Africa accuses Israel of genocide for its attacks on the Gaza Strip. Israel rejects the accusation.

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