Israel kills 23 Palestinians, destroys water desalination plant in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Israeli airstrikes early on Friday morning killed 23 Palestinians and wounded several others in Gaza, while also targeting a water desalination plant.

In the latest attacks, a Palestinian woman and her child were killed, while others sustained injuries in an airstrike on the Shujaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.

A medical source confirmed that the number of fatalities from an earlier Israeli attack on the Akkad family's home in the Al-Manara neighborhood of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip had risen to 19, up from an initial toll of 13.

A Palestinian man and his wife were also killed in an Israeli airstrike north of Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli military struck the Ghabayen water desalination plant in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City, as part of its ongoing "war of thirst" against Palestinians.

The strike on the facility comes as part of a humanitarian catastrophe that has intensified since Israel began restricting the entry of essential supplies such as food and water into Gaza on March 2.

The closure of border crossings has worsened the food and water shortages in the area.

The reporter, citing eyewitnesses, also said the Israeli army vehicles advanced east of the Shujaiya neighborhood in the eastern part of Gaza City, under heavy fire coverage.

The Israeli army has announced the expansion of its offensive in the northern part of Gaza, beginning in the Shujaiya area.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to escalate attacks on Gaza as efforts are underway to implement US President Donald Trump's plan to displace Palestinians from the enclave.

More than 50,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israel's military onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for 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.