UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS DETAILS
By Hosni Nedim, Ramzi Mahmud, and Ikram Kouachi
GAZA CITY, Palestine/ANKARA (AA) - At least 66 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured on Friday as Israeli forces continued heavy bombardment across the Gaza Strip, according to medical sources.
At least 14 people were killed when Israeli warplanes targeted a home in the Al-Tawam area, north of Gaza City.
In a separate strike on Jabalia al-Nazla, also in northern Gaza, four Palestinians were killed and others wounded.
Four Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces hit a civilian gathering near Ali Mosque in Gaza City’s southern Zeitoun neighborhood.
In Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, Israeli forces also attacked civilian gatherings, killing seven Palestinians, and used booby-trapped robots to detonate homes and residential buildings in the Birkat Sheikh Radwan area. Artillery shelling and gunfire from invading vehicles contributed to the devastation.
Meanwhile, two others were killed in the shelling of a family home on Ahmed Yassin Street in the same neighborhood, in addition to two more fatalities in the targeting of an apartment.
The bodies of 17 people killed in scattered strikes across Gaza City have arrived at hospitals, with no immediate details available on the specific locations targeted.
Israeli artillery also pounded multiple areas along the eastern edge of Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood.
Fighter jets also bombed Abu Assi School, which houses hundreds of displaced families in Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp, following evacuation orders. It was not immediately clear whether any casualties occurred.
Two more were killed when Israeli forces attacked a tent sheltering displaced families in Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.
In Rafah, a Palestinian was killed by Israeli forces while waiting for humanitarian aid, and three others were killed in Khan Younis in the south, including Amin Abu Muslim, a Palestinian Health Ministry employee.
******In the town of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, the Israeli army killed two Palestinians in a strike on a gathering of civilians.
In the al-Katiba neighborhood in the north of the city, the Israeli army killed three Palestinians in an airstrike on a gathering of residents and homes.
In the al-Mawasi area in the west, two Palestinians were killed and 17 others wounded when an Israeli drone strike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people.
In the same area, another Palestinian was killed and others were injured in a drone strike on a displacement tent near the British hospital.
Meanwhile, casualties were also reported in the Al-Sudaniya area, northwest of Gaza, after a house was hit in an Israeli strike.
In central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, sources confirmed a Palestinian succumbed to wounds sustained in an earlier strike.
Israeli fire killed one Palestinian waiting for aid near the Nitzarim checkpoint, while a drone strike injured several others at a displacement camp close to Al-Aqsa Hospital. Israeli artillery also shelled areas east of the city.
The Israeli army has continued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 64,700 Palestinians since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.
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.