UPDATES WITH DEATH TOLL, EDITS THROUGH
By Anadolu staff
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least 34 Palestinians were killed and several others injured in Israeli airstrikes on both northern and southern Gaza on Saturday.
Medical sources told Anadolu that an airstrike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, left three people dead and several wounded.
The injured were transported to nearby hospitals, including Al-Ahli Baptist and Kamal Adwan hospitals, for urgent medical care.
Eyewitnesses reported intense artillery shelling by Israeli forces in Beit Lahia and Jabalia, with dozens of houses destroyed in western Jabalia.
Loud explosions and thick plumes of smoke were visible in the area, indicating the Israeli army's ongoing military offensives.
Medical sources also told Anadolu that three more bodies were recovered from the rubble of a home targeted by Israeli forces in Gaza City.
In a separate attack, the Palestinian Civil Defense reported that two bodies were discovered following an Israeli strike in the Khirbet Al-Adas area, north of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Medical sources at the Gaza European Hospital told Anadolu that five bodies were brought to the hospital following an Israeli strike targeting them in Rafah.
At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, three injured people, including a child, were brought to the hospital after another strike targeting Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.
A Palestinian was killed and four others were injured as a result of an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, medical sources told Anadolu.
- School sheltering displaced people attacked, killing 10 people
In another attack, Al-Awda Hospital in central Gaza reported the death of one Palestinian and the injury of another, in an Israeli airstrike that targeted them in the Tabet al-Nuwairi area, west of the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.
The Israeli bombing of the Abu Assi school, which shelters hundreds of displaced people, killed 10 Palestinians and injured more than 20 others, Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Palestinian Civil Defense, told Anadolu.
Israeli warplanes targeted the school housing displaced Palestinians with two missiles, he added.
During its 13-month ongoing offensive on Gaza, Israel has numerous times struck schools, mosques and churches, hospitals, and other civilian buildings – all likely violations of the rules of war.
The Palestinian Civil Defense said in a statement that its teams recovered four Palestinians and several injured others following an Israeli airstrike targeting the Ayyoub family home near the Al-Shaabiyya intersection in central Gaza City.
In the Al-Daraj neighborhood, east of Gaza, five Palestinians were killed, and others were injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a gathering of civilians, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Anadolu.
Since Oct. 5, Israel has launched a large-scale ground operation in northern Gaza, claiming its goal is to prevent Hamas from regaining strength in the area. However, Palestinian officials say that the military offensive is aimed to forcibly depopulate northern Gaza and establish a buffer zone.
Israel has continued its devastating offensive against Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas in October 2023. The onslaught has killed nearly 43,800 people and made the enclave almost uninhabitable.
It has also displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
*Writing by Ikram Kouachi and Rania Abu Shamala