UPDATE 2 - 9 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on southern, central Gaza Strip

CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; UPDATES DEATH TOLL

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least nine Palestinians, including a child, were killed and several others injured on Saturday in three Israeli airstrikes targeting the southern and central Gaza Strip.

An Israeli drone targeted a gathering of Palestinians east of the Zeitoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City killing two and wounding another, a medical source at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the city told Anadolu.

In the southern Gaza Strip, “five citizens, including a child, were martyred in an Israeli airstrike targeting a home in southern Khan Younis,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Israeli warplanes bombed a house belonging to the Abu Hassaneh family in the Miraj area between the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, killing five family members, including a child and three women, it added.

Separately, civil defense crews said that in the central Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were killed and three others injured when Israeli warplanes bombed a house belonging to the Al-Dayah family in the Bureij refugee camp.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,300 injured, according to local health authorities.

Almost 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara