UPDATE 2 - Dozens killed in intense Israeli airstrikes, artillery shelling in Gaza Strip

UPDATES WITH 6 FATALITIES BEHIND THE DEIR AL-LATIN SCHOOL

By Hosni Nadim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured in intense Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling targeting various areas in the Gaza Strip.

Medical sources told Anadolu that several Palestinians were killed and others were injured late Thursday and early Friday in a series of Israeli airstrikes in the southern and central Gaza Strip, as well as in Gaza City and northern Gaza.

Rescue teams retrieved the bodies of seven municipal workers killed by an Israeli strike on the Gaza municipality's parking lot, they said.

"Search efforts are ongoing to find the missing victims under the rubble," field sources said.

In the Zaytoun neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, a Palestinian was killed and others were injured in an artillery shelling targeting the Nadim area, while additional casualties were reported from an Israeli airstrike on homes belonging to the Ashour and Farwana families.

Indiscriminate Israeli artillery shelled Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, causing families in the area to flee.

Some Palestinians lost their lives and others sustained injuries as a result of Israeli airstrikes targeting Al-Nasr Street, the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in the northwest, and the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood in the east.

In northern Gaza, a Palestinian man died after being directly hit by a missile from an Israeli drone in Beit Lahia, while several areas in the Jabalia refugee camp experienced artillery shelling, according to Anadolu correspondent.

Medical sources at Al-Awda Hospital reported receiving four bodies -- three children and their mother -- from the Al-Rai family, whose home was hit by an Israeli strike two days ago in the central Gaza Strip.

Earlier in the day, at least three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Friday, Wafa news agency reported.

Several others were also injured in Israeli raids targeting two homes in the Al-Tuffah and Al-Shujaiya neighborhoods.

Later on Friday, six Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting residential apartments behind the Deir Al-Latin School in central Gaza City, medical sources informed Anadolu.

- Ongoing fighting in Rafah

Fierce clashes between Palestinian resistance forces and the Israeli army renewed on Friday in the Tel Sultan and Saudi neighborhoods in the western part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Witnesses and field sources reported to Anadolu that consecutive explosions rocked central Rafah.

Israeli artillery shelled homes and areas in the Shaboura refugee camp in central Rafah, witnesses told Anadolu.

Artillery and machine-gun fire continued to target displaced people's tents in the Mawasi Rafah area, the witnesses added.

Al-Qassam and Al-Quds brigades said they shelled a gathering of Israeli vehicles in the Shaboura camp with mortar shells.

Israeli forces also shelled the Zeitoun neighborhood, northern areas of the Nuseirat camp, multiple areas of Deir Al-Balah, the town of Al-Masdar, and the Al-Maghazi camp.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The Palestinian death toll from relentless Israeli attacks since then has exceeded 37,400, while vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi and Mohammad Sio.