By Mohamad Majed and Mustafa Haboush
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Several Palestinians were killed and injured in Israeli airstrikes on Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday despite international warnings against a planned onslaught on the city, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency.
"Our teams retrieved several bodies from under the rubble of several destroyed homes in Rafah,” the agency said in a statement.
According to an Anadolu reporter, the airstrikes targeted a number of houses where hundreds of displaced people have sheltered.
The Palestinian Health Ministry has yet to give an official death toll from the attacks.
Israel announced plans to conduct what it called a "major activity" in Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people have taken refuge from Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, following the evacuation of Palestinians to the western area of the city.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for the military operation on March 15 despite international opposition to the planned assault.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last October, which killed some 1,200 people.
More than 31,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and almost 74,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul