UPDATE – 19 Palestinians killed as Israeli warplanes strike homes in Gaza

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS DETAILS

By Hosni Nadim and Mohammad Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Israeli warplanes struck two homes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least 19 Palestinians, according to medical sources and witnesses.

One source said Israeli jets hit a house in the northern town of Jabalia, leaving 12 people dead and several others injured.

“At least 10 people are still missing under the rubble,” the source said.

Three more people were killed, including a civil defense member, and three others injured in another strike on a residential apartment in al-Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City, another medical source said.

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said the new fatality brought to 87 the number of civil defense personnel killed in Israeli attacks since last October.

Another Palestinian was killed and several people were injured in Israeli shelling in the southern city of Rafah, according to medics.

Three more people were killed in an Israeli strike on the Khirbet Al-Adas area in northern Rafah, the Civil Defense Service said.

Israeli artillery shelling further injured three people near Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, according to a medical source.

The Israeli army also launched airstrikes and artillery shelling in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, witnesses said.

No information was yet available about casualties.

Israel has launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip following a Hamas attack last year, killing nearly 44,000 people, most of them women and children, and injuring over 104,000.

International recognition of the genocide in Gaza has grown in the second year of the deadly Israeli war, as organizations and leaders have labeled the events as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar