ISTANBUL

At least 30 Palestinians were killed in the Deir al-Balah region of central Gaza in the last 24 hours as Israel continued its onslaught on the besieged enclave, local officials said Sunday.

The Israeli army carried out air attacks on the homes of civilians in Deir al-Balah and bombed a mosque in the same area, said the media office of the government in Gaza.

Noting that the attack was part of “Israel's genocidal war” against civilians in Gaza, it said the international community and the US administration, which gave the green light to the massacres, were responsible for the act.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, killing at least 27,365 Palestinians and injuring 66,630 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar