Palestinian paramedic killed, 2 injured in Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza

A Palestinian paramedic was killed Thursday and two others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.

A medical source identified the slain paramedic to Anadolu as Hussein Matar, while two others are in critical condition.

The source said the paramedic team was on a mission to evacuate injured civilians in the town who were struck by the Israeli army’s artillery.

In the course of the Israeli onslaught against Gaza that began Oct. 7, health teams have been repeatedly targeted by the army that had left hundreds of medical personnel killed and injured.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack in early October, led by the Palestinian group, Hamas, killed less than 1,200 people.

More than 33,000 Palestinians have since been killed and 75,577 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last week asked it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.