As Israeli war on Gaza enters day 258, overnight raids leave several casualties

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) - Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and Thursday resulted in several casualties among Palestinians as the deadly offensive in the enclave enters its 258th day.

According to official Palestinian news agency Wafa, two women killed and 12 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a home in western Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Israeli artillery shelled the southern areas of the Zeitoun neighborhood in the southeastern Gaza City, as well as the eastern areas of the central Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps.

Shelling was also reported in most areas of Rafah, the strip's southernmost city, as well as heavy Israeli machine gun fire.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 37,400 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar