GAZA CITY – The Israeli army killed at least 77 Palestinians in airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since the announcement of a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said in a statement that the victims included 25 women and 21 children, while over 250 people were injured since Wednesday night.
The spokesman said 66 of the victims were killed in airstrikes in Gaza City, four in the central Gaza Strip, and seven in the southern Khan Younis city.
He described the last hours across the enclave as “extremely difficult, especially in Gaza City.”
A medical source told Anadolu early Thursday that an Israeli airstrike on a residential square in Gaza City left 20 Palestinians dead and many others injured.
Women and children were among the people killed in the airstrike, it added.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli warplanes carried out intensive Israeli airstrikes on a residential square in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
Five more Palestinians were killed and over 10 others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a home in the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, according to the Civil Defense.
In a third strike on Gaza City, four Palestinians were killed as the Israeli army struck an apartment in the Al-Daraj neighborhood, according to a medical source.
A little girl was also killed in an Israeli drone strike on a home in the Shejaiya neighborhood.
Also in Gaza City, the Civil Defense reported that three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a home.
Local sources reported heavy Israeli artillery shelling and gun-machine firing toward the neighborhoods of Tel al-Hawa, Zeitoun and Al-Sabra in eastern and southeastern Gaza City.
In the central Gaza Strip, three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike on two apartments in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to a medical source.
In the southern Gaza Strip, medical sources told Anadolu that two more Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a home in Khan Younis city.
Qatar announced on Wednesday a cease-fire agreement to end over 15 months of deadly Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the 3-phase deal will be effective on Sunday.
The deal includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Nearly 46,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children were killed and over 110,000 others injured in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, according to local health authorities.
The war has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.
In 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. -AA
