Scores of Palestinian civilians have been killed over the last few hours as Israel continues its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip for the 135th day.
Scores of civilians, including many children and women, were killed and others wounded in Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling in central Gaza.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that approximately 40 civilians were killed, while dozens sustained various injuries as Israeli forces targeted several homes in the town of Al-Zawayda, the city of Deir al-Balah, and the Nuseirat refugee camp.
In Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, at least 20 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli strikes that targeted civilian homes in and around the city.
PALESTINIAN MEDIA: Two Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house on Mansoura Street, east of the Shejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City, which has been subjected to heavy bombardment since last night.
FOLLOW OUR LIVE BLOG:… pic.twitter.com/FdDL5VVWJO
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) February 18, 2024
Israeli warplanes also targeted nine houses in the southern city of Rafah, resulting in the killing of 13 civilians and wounding of dozens.
Israeli warships opened gunfire at the coast of Rafah, coinciding with artillery shelling that targeted the southern and eastern parts of the city.
In Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes targeted residential buildings in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Radwan, Al-Nasr, Al-Zaytoun, Al-Rimal, and Al-Sabra, leading to the murder of at least 10 civilians.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 28,858 Palestinians have been killed, and 68,677 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(PC, WAFA)
