By Hosni Nadim
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – At least 88 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes on residential areas in the northern Gaza Strip early Thursday, with ordinary citizens and hospital staff assisting in transporting the injured and dead to hospitals after Israeli forces destroyed Palestinian Civil Defense's emergency assistance infrastructure.
At least 66 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a residential square near the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, a medical source told Anadolu, providing preliminary estimates.
People were carrying the dead and injured to the hospital because there were no Palestinian Civil Defense rescue teams to help them after Israeli forces destroyed their infrastructure, the source said.
He added that medical teams from Kamal Adwan Hospital helped to rescue people from beneath the rubble.
"Dozens of homes in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital were completely destroyed and dozens others severely damaged by the Israeli devastating airstrike," a source seen the destructions told Anadolu.
In an earlier attack, an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of northern Gaza City killed at least 22 more Palestinians.
"The death toll rose to 22 Palestinians, including 10 children and five women, by an Israeli airstrike on a home for the Al-Arouqi family in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood," a medical source told Anadolu.
An eyewitness also told Anadolu that a heavy Israeli airstrike completely destroyed a six-story building for the Al-Arouqi family, killing dozens and leaving others missing under the rubble.
Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last year, killing nearly 44,000 people, most of them women and children, and injuring over 104,000.
The second year of genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with figures and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar