Gaza Death Toll Climbs Above 26,000

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Friday that the territory’s death toll has climbed to more than 26,000 people with more than 64,400 wounded in more than three months of war.

The ministry said early Friday that in the last 24 hours, 183 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes and 377 have been injured.

The Israeli military said it is investigating an attack on Thursday that killed at least 20 people and wounded another 150 at a traffic circle in Gaza City as Palestinians waited for humanitarian aid, Hamas health officials said.

Also in central Gaza, Palestinian health officials said a nighttime Israeli airstrike on a house in Al-Nusseirat refugee camp killed six people.

The death toll from a Wednesday strike on a United Nations training center in Khan Younis in southern Gaza has risen to 12, with more than 75 wounded, according to Thomas White, a senior official with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

The U.N. relief agency did not directly blame Israel, although earlier it had said the facility was hit by tank fire and Israel is the only force with tanks in Gaza’s second-largest city. The Israeli military said it had "currently ruled out" that the strike was carried out by its aircraft or artillery but that it was still investigating the attack.