Overnight Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill 17 Palestinians, injure dozens

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) - Israeli forces killed at least 17 Palestinians and injured dozens more in overnight airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, as Israel's deadly assault on the captured enclave entered its 256th day.

Medical teams collected 13 bodies from the rubble of two destroyed homes belonging to the Al-Ra'ie and al-Madhoun families in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Tuesday.

Another Israeli airstrike on the Harb family's home in Bureij refugee camp killed at least four Palestinians and injured several others, it added.

More Israeli airstrikes and shelling were reported in Rafah and Deir al-Balah, in southern and central Gaza, respectively, as well as Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa and Zeitoun neighborhoods.

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.

More than 37,300 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,000 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.