UPDATE 2 - Israeli army kills 16 more Palestinians in fresh Gaza strikes

UPDATES WITH LATEST DEATH TOLL; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE

By Ikram Kouachi and Ramzi Mahmud

GAZA CITY, Palestine/ANKARA (AA) - Fresh Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 16 Palestinians on Saturday, medical sources told Anadolu.

The sources at the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said that six of the Palestinians, including four children, were killed when Israeli forces bombed a home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

In a separate attack, an Israeli drone struck a tent sheltering displaced families in the al-Mawasi area, north of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing a man and his wife.

Several others were also reported injured in both strikes, with hospitals warning of worsening shortages of beds and medical supplies amid the ongoing bombardment.

Five more Palestinians were shot dead and several others injured while waiting for aid near the Zikim crossing, northwest of Gaza City.

Two Palestinians from the al-Majoua area were also killed by Israeli army fire near an aid distribution center in southern Gaza.

A fisherman was killed and another was wounded when Israeli naval forces opened fire on them off the coast of Gaza City.

Separately, Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said the ongoing Israeli assault on the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, now in its sixth day, has displaced hundreds of families, leaving them without shelter.

Thawabta described the attacks as part of a “systematic Israeli policy aimed at widespread destruction, forced displacement of Palestinians, and imposing a new demographic reality by force.”

The Israeli military has demolished some 400 homes over the past six days in the Zeitoun neighborhood in the central Gaza Strip, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.

Israel has killed nearly 61,900 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of 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.