UPDATE 3 - Israeli strikes kill 35 more Palestinians across Gaza Strip, including aid seekers

UPDATES DEATH TOLL; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE

By Ikram Kouachi and Rania Abu Shamala

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (AA) - At least 35 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured early Friday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting residential areas and shelters for the displaced people across the Gaza Strip.

In the latest attack, the Israeli army killed two Palestinians waiting for aid south of the Wadi Gaza area in the central Gaza Strip.

The army killed five Palestinians and injured others after shelling two civilian gatherings and Amr ibn al-As school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City.

In the northern town of Jabalia, five Palestinians, including a child, were killed when an Israeli strike hit a group of civilians in the Al-Nazla area.

The attack marked the latest in a pattern of strikes on densely populated areas with no prior warning, residents said.

Most of the fatalities took place in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where 17 people were killed in multiple strikes at dawn.

According to medical sources, five people, including three women and a child, were killed and over 20 others wounded when Israeli warplanes struck tents sheltering displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.

Elsewhere in the city, a woman and her son were killed and nine others injured in a drone strike on the Hanawi School in northwest Khan Younis.

A separate Israeli strike hit tents sheltering displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis, killing five more people, including a child, and injuring at least 15 others.

Five more civilians were also killed and 10 others wounded when Israeli warplanes bombed a family home in the western camp area of Khan Younis.

The Israeli army also continued to demolish homes in eastern Khan Younis, while carrying out heavy artillery shelling on both the southern and northern edges of the city.

In Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli army killed six Palestinians and injured several others who were waiting for humanitarian aid near an aid distribution center.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 59,000 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and a spread of disease.

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.​​​​​​​