GAZA CITY, Palestine

At least seven Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli airstrikes on homes across the war-torn Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Civil Defense Service said. 

The agency said five people, including two children, lost their lives and several others were injured in a strike on a house east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

One person was also killed in a drone strike targeting a house west of the same city, and another in Jabalia in northern Gaza, it added.

Several people were reported injured in artillery shelling and a drone strike in the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, according to medics.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 41,500 people, mostly women and children, have since been killed and more than 96,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar