By Nour Abuaisha
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Ten Palestinians, including two children, were killed Friday evening in Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling on central and southern Gaza, according to multiple statements released by the civil defense spokesperson in the enclave.
In an initial statement released on Telegram, Mahmoud Basal reported that “four people were killed and several were injured due to artillery shelling west of Al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.”
In addition, two children were killed in an Israeli artillery strike on a home belonging to the Awad family in the town of Al-Fukhari, east of the southern city of Khan Younis, he added in a subsequent update.
In a third statement, Basal confirmed that a Palestinian man was killed, and others wounded after an Israeli strike on a group of people northeast of Rafah city in southern Gaza.
“Three Palestinians were killed and others wounded due to an Israeli strike on a home belonging to the Shalouf family in the Al-Mawasi area, west of Rafah,” Basal said in his fourth and final report.
Less than an hour earlier, the civil defense service announced the death of three Palestinians in an Israeli strike targeting a tent for displaced people in Rafah.
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last Oct. 7.
More than 41,500 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and more than 96,000 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 accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio