Israel kills 22 Palestinians in airstrikes on refugee camp, homes

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – At least 22 people, including four children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, medical sources said.

Witnesses said a drone shelled a group of civilians in Block C in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Five people lost their lives in the attack, including four children, the medical sources said.

Israeli fighter jets also hit a home in the northern town of Beit Lahia, leaving five people dead, the sources added.

Another medical source said that two people were killed in another Israeli strike in Al-Zuhur neighborhood in in the southern city of Rafah.

The bodies of 10 Palestinians were also recovered after an Israeli airstrike near the Abu Yousef El-Najjar Hospital in eastern Rafah, the sources added.

Israel launched a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since last October, killing more than 44,500 people, most of them women and children, and injuring nearly 106,000.

The second year of the genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with officials and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.

On November 21, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 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 deadly war on Gaza.

Several analysts say the actual death toll including those gone missing and dying of starvation or infection far outstrips the official numbers by 4-5 times. Over 10% of the total population of the battered enclave has perished, with over 1400 families completely wiped out from the population registry.