21 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Strip

By Hosni Nedim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least 21 Palestinians were killed on Friday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting homes and makeshift shelters for displaced people across the Gaza Strip.

A medical source at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza told Anadolu that eight fatalities and multiple injuries were reported following an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.

Four more bodies and several injured individuals were pulled from the rubble when an Israeli airstrike targeted a home in the same area, Gaza Civil Defense Forces confirmed.

In northern Gaza, Israeli drones repeatedly targeted Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Beit Lahia project area, injuring seven medical staff, with two of them in critical condition.

Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya said the drones struck while staff were rescuing and treating victims from the initial strike on the hospital's reception area and oxygen unit.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli warplanes carried out further strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, while Israeli forces burned Palestinian homes in the vicinity of Beit Lahia’s town square.

In central Gaza, five Palestinians were killed and others injured in an airstrike that hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to medical sources.

Two more Palestinians were killed, and others injured, when an Israeli helicopter targeted a home in Deir Al-Balah.

In southern Gaza, a woman and her daughter were killed when an Israeli helicopter struck a tent sheltering displaced people in the Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, according to medical sources.

Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last year, killing over 44,000 people, most of them women and children, and injuring over 104,000.

The second year of the genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with figures and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.

In a landmark move, the International Criminal Court on Thursday announced it had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes in Palestinian territories, including Gaza.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi