By Mohamed Majed
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Two Palestinians were killed and 20 others, including children and women, were injured Thursday as a result of Israeli artillery shelling targeting the eastern areas of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
A medical source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told Anadolu that two bodies and 20 injured individuals, including children and women, were brought to the hospital following Israeli shelling in the eastern parts of the city.
Earlier, Israeli artillery violently targeted the neighborhoods of Al-Manara, Maen, Sheikh Nasser, and the outskirts of Qizan Al-Najjar in the southern and eastern parts of the city, witnesses told Anadolu.
Witnesses reported a mass displacement of hundreds of Palestinian families due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment affecting several neighborhoods in the area.
They added that the intense artillery shelling appears to be a precursor to a potential ground incursion into the city's eastern regions.
The Israeli army has continued a devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last year.
More than 42,800 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 100,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught on Gaza has displaced almost the territory’s entire population amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.