ANKARA / ISTANBUL

At least 46 Palestinians were killed, including an entire family and journalists, in deadly Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, as Tel Aviv continued to defy international calls for a ceasefire.

The official news agency Wafa, citing medical sources, said a husband, wife, and three children were killed in an Israeli strike in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

A drone strike on a tent sheltering displaced civilians also left at least six people dead in the same area.

Four more people lost their lives in another attack in Bani Suhaila town in eastern Khan Younis, a medical source told Anadolu.

Ten other people were killed in separate Israeli strikes on different areas in the same city, local sources said.

A medical source said that two people were killed when an Israeli warplane struck a vehicle for a charity organization in Khan Younis.

A girl was also killed, and several people were injured when Israeli forces shelled a home in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

In northern Gaza, two Palestinians, including a pregnant woman, were killed in another attack in Jabalia town. Medical crews also recovered the bodies of three people from the rubble in the same town.

Three more Palestinians were killed in Israeli artillery shelling and airstrikes in the northern town of Beit Lahia.

Three journalists were also killed in a drone strike on the grounds of the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, taking the overall death toll since October 2023 to 225, Gaza’s government media office said.

Three more people, including two children, were killed in strikes targeting two homes in the southern part of the same city, medics said.

An Israeli drone strike targeted a group of displaced civilians in western Gaza City, killing four people, medics said.

The strikes came hours after the US vetoed a Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The Israeli army, rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 54,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last 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 crimes against civilians in the enclave.