Israel kills 16 more Palestinians in Gaza amid relentless bombardment

By Ramzi Mahmud and Rania Abu Shamala

GAZA CITY, Palestine/ISTANBUL (AA) — Israeli forces killed 16 Palestinians on Friday in fresh attacks on homes and civilians waiting for aid across the Gaza Strip, medics said, as the army continued demolishing residential buildings in the besieged enclave.

Ten people were shot dead and others wounded near a food distribution point close to the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza while waiting for humanitarian aid, according to health workers.

In Gaza City, one person was killed and several injured in an Israeli strike on the Al-Zarqa area in the northeast. Two others were killed in separate bombings in the city’s eastern neighborhoods. Another three Palestinians died when an airstrike hit a civilian gathering on al-Nafaq Street.

Overnight, Israeli jets carried out heavy air raids on Tel al-Hawa and around the university district in western Gaza City, witnesses said.
Troops also demolished residential blocks in the city’s northwest. In southern Gaza, Israeli helicopters fired on civilian homes in central Khan Younis, they added.

The Israeli army has killed more than 65,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. Months of air and ground assaults have left Gaza largely uninhabitable, pushing its population into famine and disease.