Scores of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardment of Gaza Strip

ANKARA

Scores of Palestinians were killed and several others injured on Saturday in an overnight Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, official media reported.

Palestinian news agency Wafa said, “Israeli fighter jets targeted several areas in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the killing of at least 24 persons.”

Of the victims, at least 20 arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah, according to medical sources.

Separately, Wafa said Israeli forces fired shells on houses and structures in the Al-Zaytoun and Al-Sabra neighborhoods in Gaza City, resulting in severe damage.

In Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, another seven Palestinians were killed and many others injured in Israeli attacks, the news agency reported.

Israel has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas which claimed about 1,200 lives and took around 250 as hostages.

The retaliatory offensive has also reduced much of the enclave to rubble, and left the territory in the grips of a humanitarian crisis characterized by shortages of food, water and medicine. About 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million population is forcibly displaced.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi