GAZA CITY, Palestine

Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to a medical source.

The attack targeted a group of civilians in the city, witnesses said.

A medical source said the bodies of the victims were transferred to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 39,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,700 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi