By Hosni Nadim
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Several Palestinians were killed and injured on Saturday in a series of Israeli airstrikes and shelling on homes in Gaza City and the northern governorate of the besieged Strip amid escalating military attacks.
At least nine Palestinians were killed and several others, mostly women and children, were injured in Israeli military shelling that targeted a house belonging to the Qubt family in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, medical sources told Anadolu.
Several Palestinians were killed and injured in Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip that targeted the homes of the Okasha, Al-Masri, and Abu Aita families, according to eyewitnesses.
The witnesses said civil defense teams are still searching for survivors under the rubble of the targeted homes in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, an Anadolu correspondent reported that Israeli warplanes conducted a series of intense airstrikes east of the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, resulting in widespread devastation.
In Gaza City, Israeli forces expanded their incursions into the Zaytoun neighborhood in the southern part of the city, with heavy shelling of various areas, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.
They reported that fierce clashes erupted between Palestinian resistance elements and Israeli forces infiltrating the Zaytoun neighborhood, with clashes and explosions heard in some areas.
Some Palestinians were also killed in the attack on homes belonging to Seyam and Abu Shareea families in the Zaytoun neighborhood, according to medical sources.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip following Palestinian resistance group Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people.
Nearly 34,950 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have since been killed, and nearly 78,600 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Seven months into the conflict, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
South Africa on Friday asked the ICJ to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah as part of additional emergency measures over the war.
*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala