UPDATE - 4 children among 18 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza Strip

UPDATES WITH LATEST DEATH TOLL; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; ADDS MORE DETAILS

By Hosni Nedim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least 18 Palestinians, including four children, were killed in airstrikes by Israeli warplanes targeting the central Gaza Strip with one of the strikes hitting tents set up for displaced persons in what the Israeli military claims is a "humanitarian safe zone.”

Medical sources at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital told Anadolu that six bodies were brought to the hospital after an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood.

Palestinian medics also reported the death of a woman and her daughter in an Israeli strike that targeted a house in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood, west of Gaza City.

They added that several people were still under the rubble of the targeted home.

Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp issued a brief statement confirming the deaths of two women and as many children in the airstrike on tents west of the camp. Several others were reported injured.

The targeted area is among those designated by the Israeli army as a "humanitarian safe zone," according to local Palestinian sources.

In the past few months, the Israeli army has repeatedly struck camps housing displaced individuals in areas it labels as "safe zones," as well as shelters across various parts of Gaza. These strikes left hundreds dead and wounded.

Meanwhile, in Gaza City, the Palestinian Civil Defense reported that three people, including two children, were killed in an airstrike on a house in the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of the city.

In a separate statement, the Civil Defense also confirmed that its teams recovered three more bodies from the rubble of a house in western Gaza City.

In the Central Governorate, Israeli artillery intensified its shelling east of the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi refugee camps, as well as north of Nuseirat, according to witnesses.

The Israeli army also demolished homes near the Nitsarim Axis south of Gaza City, with explosions heard throughout Gaza and the Central Governorate, witnesses said.

Witnesses added that the army also destroyed residential buildings south of the University College in southwest Gaza City.

In the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military demolished entire residential blocks in the northwest part of the city, according to witnesses.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 40,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed and over 94,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of the enclave has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi