Israel kills 8 Palestinians, destroys buildings, residential blocks in Gaza City, Rafah

By Hosni Nedim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least eight Palestinians were killed in airstrikes by Israeli warplanes targeting two homes in Gaza City on late Thursday and early Friday, according to local sources.

Medical sources at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital told Anadolu that six bodies were brought to the hospital after an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood.

Palestinian medics also reported the death of a woman and her daughter in an Israeli strike that targeted a house in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood, west of Gaza City.

They added that several people were still under the rubble of the targeted home.

In the Zeitoun and Al-Sabra neighborhoods of Gaza City, Israeli artillery shelled homes and civilian property, while helicopters fired rounds, according to witnesses.

In the Central Governorate, Israeli artillery intensified its shelling east of the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi refugee camps, as well as north of Nuseirat, according to witnesses.

The Israeli army also demolished homes near the Nitsarim Axis south of Gaza City, with explosions heard throughout Gaza and the Central Governorate, witnesses said.

Witnesses added that the army also destroyed residential buildings south of the University College in southwest Gaza City.

In the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military demolished entire residential blocks in the northwest part of the city, according to witnesses.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed and over 94,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of the enclave has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi