At least 8 killed as Israeli fighter jets pound Gaza City

By Mohammad Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least eight Palestinians were killed and several others injured in fresh Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Thursday, according to local authorities and witnesses.

The Palestinian Civil Defense Agency said its teams recovered the bodies of five people after an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the al-Daraj neighborhood east of Gaza City, while 15 other Palestinians were injured.

A woman and child were killed and several others injured in another Israeli airstrike in the center of Gaza City, it added.

Artillery shelling also killed one Palestinian and injured three others east of Gaza City, witnesses said.

A number of people were reported killed and injured in an Israeli strike in the city's center, according to witnesses.

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

More than 38,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,400 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 it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar