UPDATE 2 – Children among 27 killed as Israel strikes Gaza before release of Israeli-American captive

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS CHANGES

By Ahmed Asmar and Betul Yilmaz

ANKARA / ISTANBUL (AA) – The Israeli army killed at least 27 Palestinians, including children, and injured several others in strikes across war-torn Gaza on Monday ahead of the scheduled release of Israeli-American captive Edan Alexander.

A medical source said that 16 Palestinians were killed and others injured in airstrikes targeting a school sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to an Anadolu reporter, fighter jets struck the Fatima Bint Asad School twice, resulting in the fatalities, including women and children.

Local sources and witnesses said an Israeli warplane struck the second floor of the school, where hundreds of displaced civilians have sheltered.

Another medical source said a Palestinian girl was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Another Palestinian succumbed to his injuries sustained from a previous Israeli strike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, he added.

The bodies of four Palestinians were also recovered from the rubble after Israeli airstrikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, medics said.

Another Palestinian was killed and several people were injured by Israeli artillery shelling in the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City.

Two bodies were also retrieved in the same neighborhood, two days after an Israeli strike in the area, a medical source said.

An Israeli drone strike also killed two more Palestinians in the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, he added.

In the Al-Zahra town, north of the Nuseriat refugee camp, two Palestinians were injured by Israeli army fire.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army blew up more homes in the eastern areas of the Al-Tuffah neighborhood in northeastern Gaza City, according to witnesses.

Late Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that his army continues to destroy homes in Gaza to prevent Palestinians from returning and to force them to emigrate.

The Israeli strikes came as Alexander, the last known living US hostage held in Gaza, is set to be released on Monday, according to statements by US President Donald Trump and the Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 52,900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for 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.