Palestinian medical officials say an apparent Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed at least 18 people in central Gaza. The al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said in a statement that the strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people close to the hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead were men. Another two men were critically wounded. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is now nearing 42,000. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.
