UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS DETAILS
By Mohamed Majed
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – At least 23 Palestinians were killed in fresh Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to medical sources.
Israeli fighter jets hit a house in the northern town of Jabalia, leaving five people dead and injuring several others, one source said.
Three more people were killed and others injured in a drone strike targeting a popular marketplace in the same town, he added.
Three people were also killed and three others injured when Israeli forces shelled a gathering of civilians in the refugee camp of Nuseirat in central Gaza, another medical source said.
An Israeli strike targeting a group of civilians killed five people and injured four others in the southern city of Rafah, the source said.
Four more Palestinians were killed when Israeli warplanes struck two homes in Jabalia al-Nazla area in northern Gaza, a medical source said.
In eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, three children were killed in an Israeli drone strike, the same source said.
The attacks came as Israel escalated its deadly offensive in the northern Gaza Strip for allegedly stopping Palestinian resistance group Hamas from regrouping. Palestinians, however, accuse Israel of seeking to occupy the area and forcibly displace its residents.
More than 1,800 people have been killed since then, according to Palestinian health authorities. Food and other aid are severely limited.
Israel has continued a devastating offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 43,400 people and rendering the enclave almost uninhabitable.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in the blockaded enclave.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio and Ahmed Asmar