8 more Palestinians killed as Israel launches fresh airstrikes in Gaza

By Hosni Nadim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Eight more Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in fresh Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to medical sources and witnesses.

An airstrike targeted a refugee tent west of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing three people and injuring several others, the source said.

Most of the injured in the Israeli attack were children, he added.

Four more people, including a child and two women, were killed in another strike targeting a home east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the source added.

Several people were also injured in Israeli artillery shelling targeting their home in Rafah in southern Gaza.

A child also lost her life in Israeli artillery shelling in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia, according to witnesses.

The attacks came as the Israeli army continued to blow up more Palestinian homes in the southwestern areas of Jabalia, witnesses said.

The Israeli army has continued a deadly onslaught in northern Gaza since Oct. 5 to allegedly prevent Hamas from regrouping amid a suffocating siege on the area. Palestinians, however, accuse Israel of seeking to occupy the area and forcibly displace its residents.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in northern Gaza since the offensive began, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense Service.

The onslaught was the latest episode in a brutal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Over 43,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 101,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar