GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL 

The Israeli army killed 43 more Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday amid an expanded offensive aimed at fully occupying Gaza City, medical sources and witnesses said.

One Palestinian was killed and several people were injured in an airstrike targeting a civilian gathering in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. A child was also killed by an Israeli drone near Ansar roundabout in the same area.

In the Shati refugee camp, Israeli strikes killed one person in a house attack. Another Palestinian lost his life in a drone strike in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood.

Another attack targeted a family house in the Sabra neighborhood in the same city, killing a woman.

Five people were also killed and 37 others injured in attacks targeting eastern and western Gaza City on Thursday, the Al-Sarayya field hospital said.

Witnesses said the Israeli army blew up dozens of homes in al-Sabra and Tel al-Hawa in the city’s south and Sheikh Radwan and al-Nasr in the northwest.

Israel’s government approved a plan on Aug. 8, proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to gradually reoccupy the entire Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City, home to about 1 million Palestinians.

The military then launched a large-scale offensive on the city, destroying homes, towers, property, and tents for the displaced, bombing hospitals, and carrying out ground incursions.  

Deadly attacks

In central Gaza, one person was killed and several people were wounded in a drone strike on a civilian gathering in the Abu Aref area west of Deir al-Balah city.

In al-Mash'ala, east of the city, three people, including a woman, were killed when their displacement tent was bombed.

In Wadi al-Salqa to the south, another person was killed in a similar attack. In Hikr al-Jami, one person was killed in a tent strike.

Four brothers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Bureij refugee camp as they collected firewood. Another person was killed near al-Rashid Street, close to the Netzarim corridor, when Israeli forces targeted displaced Palestinians.

In southern Gaza, Israeli forces also opened fire on Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid west of the same city, killing 13 people, including a woman.

In al-Mawasi, west of the city, nine people, including a father, his four sons, and his grandson, were killed when a food kitchen was struck.

The Israeli army has killed over 66,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in Gaza since October 2023. The relentless bombardment has rendered the enclave uninhabitable and led to starvation and the spread of diseases.