UPDATE 2 - Israeli strikes kill 17 Palestinians across Gaza Strip

UPDATES DEATH TOLL

By Ikram Kouachi

At least 17 Palestinians were killed and several others injured early Friday in Israeli drone attacks targeting multiple areas across the Gaza Strip, according to medical sources.

Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood.

Four Palestinians were killed and four others injured when an Israeli drone bombed tents sheltering displaced civilians in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

A Palestinian woman was also killed and others were wounded when an Israeli strike hit a tent near the Tiberias Station in western Khan Younis.

Further south in Khan Younis, three Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid were killed and 73 others injured when Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd.

In central Gaza’s city of Deir al-Balah, four more people were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential area.

Several casualties were also reported in Gaza City where Israeli forces bombed a building in the Al-Rimal neighborhood and a house near the Sheikh Radwan cemetery.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

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