By Hosni Nadim
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Israeli forces killed at least 18 Palestinians overnight in heavy bombardments on the eastern regions of the central and southern Gaza Strip, which continued into Monday morning, as well as targeting residential areas in eastern Khan Younis and western Rafah.
Medical sources told Anadolu that 16 bodies have been transferred from various areas of southern Gaza to the Nasser Medical Complex in western Khan Younis since Sunday night.
Those Palestinians were killed in the Israeli strikes on Khan Younis and Rafah, with rescue teams recovering several bodies from the rubbles following heavy bombardment.
Israeli warplanes launched heavy raids on the southeastern and northeastern areas of Khan Younis and eastern Deir al-Balah, causing significant damage to residential structures, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.
They added that the Israeli military demolished residential blocks in Abasan al-Jadida town, east of Khan Younis, and damaged some residential buildings in the Tel Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah.
In central Gaza, two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting the entrance to the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to medical sources.
Israeli warplanes also targeted the home of Jamil Mazhar, deputy secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to a statement from the group.
Israeli artillery also intensified its bombardment of al-Jurah and al-Husayna streets in Gaza City's southern Sabra neighborhood.
Eyewitnesses said the indiscriminate artillery fires hit the Sabra area, causing extensive damage to residential homes and infrastructure.
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 the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
The Israeli onslaught has since killed nearly 39,800 victims, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,000 others, according to local health authorities.
More than 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio