Ongoing Israeli strikes devastate Gaza Strip, continue killing Palestinians

Israeli forces continued airstrikes and artillery shelling across Gaza on Thursday, marking the 272nd day of the military offensive.

In Khan Younis, an Israeli strike on a five-storey building near Nasser Hospital killed seven Palestinians.

This follows Israel’s directive for approximately 250,000 people to evacuate the eastern parts of the city.

Wafa news agency has reported multiple casualties from Israeli strikes on homes and residential areas.

In the Al-Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, four people were killed and eight others injured.

Additionally, medical teams retrieved three bodies and 13 injured individuals from the rubble in Al-Daraj neighborhood.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society has reported recovering the bodies of two children and eight injured people from an Israeli attack on Yaffa Street in Gaza City.

Another attack on Shaaf Street resulted in one death and three injuries.

In the occupied West Bank, armed Israeli settlers destroyed a fire engine and started fires that ravaged Palestinian agricultural land and fruit trees south of Hebron.

Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Andrea De Domenico says the situation is dire, and that “Nowhere and no one is safe in Gaza.”

The Israeli army reported additional casualties on Thursday, including one soldier killed and two seriously wounded in northern Gaza.

These incidents bring the total number of Israeli soldiers killed to 324 since the ground operation began on October 27, with a total of 677 deaths since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7.

Israel has killed at least 37,953 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 87,266 since then. 

Israel faces genocide accusations at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered an immediate halt to its military operations in Rafah.