Israeli Strike on Central Gaza Mosque Leaves 21 Dead, Death Toll Rises

The number of casualties from an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in central Gaza has increased to 21, as reported by the local Civil Defense and a hospital situated close to the site.

Video footage from CNN depicted the frantic efforts to extract bodies from the debris following the nocturnal strike on the mosque in Deir el Balah.

Originally reported at 18, the death toll was later updated to 21 by sources from the Civil Defense and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, located directly opposite the mosque.

In a desperate search for survivors amid the mosque’s wreckage, civilians along with civil defense and hospital personnel scrambled in darkness, aided only by the light from their cellphones, as shown in the CNN video.

The video captured distressing scenes where bodies lay strewn about, with rescuers calling out as they discovered each person.

In one instance, a man is heard shouting, “He’s alive, by God he’s alive,” as he attempts to aid a non-responsive victim on the ground.

Rescue efforts included a group of men successfully extracting another man, barely alive, from beneath a heavy block, while another appeared to have been killed by the strike.

Victims, visibly wounded and covered in dust, were hastily transported on blankets to the nearby hospital.

The Israeli military acknowledged conducting the strike, describing it as “precise” and aimed at a Hamas “command and control” center that they claimed was located within the mosque complex.